Two companies near an AI compute deal
Northern Data AG is reportedly close to securing a data center capacity agreement with Abu Dhabi's AI company G42.
As reported by Bloomberg, which cited people familiar with the matter, the agreement could see Northern Data give G42's cloud computing unit Core42 access to nearly half of its 23,000 Nvidia GPUs.
The agreement is not yet finalized, and terms could change.
It is unclear which data center(s) the agreement would be included within the agreement, or if Core42 intends to just use GPUs via Northern Data's Taiga Cloud.
Northern Data declined to comment to Bloomberg on the deal, while Core42 did not respond to requests for comment.
Northern Data was founded as Northern Bitcoin AG in Germany in 2009 and branded itself as a 'green' Bitcoin mining company.
In 2020, Northern Bitcoin was officially renamed Northern Data Group and moved its focus to HPC. And in the summer of 2023, Northern split its business into three brands: Taiga Cloud, Ardent Data Centers, and Peak Mining.
Northern Data’s Taiga unit operates more than 20,000 GPUs, according to the company's most recent quarterly results, with another 4,000 set to be deployed by the end of Q1. The Taiga unit is expecting its revenue in 2025 to be as much as 74 percent greater than in 2024.
The company as a whole currently claims the potential to provide access to more than 850MW of HPC-ready data center capacity across Europe and the US.
Ardent Data Centers has approximately 250MW of power deployed or coming online across eight global data centers by 2027, according to Northern.
Ardent operates data centers in Boden, Sweden, and Lefdal and Kristiansand, Norway. The Lefdal site is hosted by Lefdal Mine, and Kristiansand by Bulk. In June 2025, Northern launched a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, data center that will be operated by Ardent.
The company is also planning a large development in Maysville, Georgia. Northern’s most recent earnings presentation says the group also has colocation capacity in the UK and Portugal. Its website also lists a 6MW site in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
In May of this year, Northern Data said that it had received expressions of interest from unnamed "US-listed companies" to enter into discussions focused on merging or acquiring its Taiga Cloud and Ardent divisions. Previous reports further suggest Northern was looking at initial public offerings (IPOs) for both Taiga and Arden, potentially targeting a $10-16 billion valuation.
Abu Dhabi's G42 is chaired and majority owned by the brother of the UAE’s president, Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Tahnoun is the nation's national security adviser and chair of Stargate-backer MGX. G42 also owns regional data center operator Khazna.
Earlier this year, G42 announced plans for a 10-square-mile data center campus expected to eventually have 5GW of capacity, built in partnership with the US.
