Russian Bitcoin mining supplier to spend over $130m on AI data centers: report

Russia’s crypto mining equipment supplier Intelion is reportedly considering investing over $130 million to develop AI data centers.

Moscow-based crypto mining provider Intelion plans to spend 12 billion Russian rubles (over $130 million) to purchase server equipment to create artificial intelligence (AI) data centers, Russian media RBC reported, citing Intelion Cloud head Maxim Vyaznikov.

According to the report, Intelion, which also has a branch in Dubai, already has servers equipped with Nvidia’s A100 chips, despite the US Department of Commerce’s ban on the sale of these chips to China and Russia in 2022.

Intelion’s new computing infrastructure will be located in a data center currently under construction in the Samara region, and the first phase of this data center is expected to be operational in the 4th quarter of 2024. The company plans to invest over 4 billion Russian rubles (about $44.7 million). at the facility for the next two and a half years.

Intelion, which previously focused on importing mining equipment, appears to be shifting its strategy towards providing AI-related cloud services and leveraging its existing resources as other Russian companies also explore the expanding AI industry.

In early 2024, crypto.news reported that BitRiver, a Bitcoin mining company subject to OFAC sanctions, was also preparing to open an AI-focused data center in Russia in the second half of 2024. According to Sergey Bezdelov, director of the association Industrial Mining, this data center is expected to have a capacity of 100 megawatts.