Galaxy Digital delivers Helios AI data center power

Galaxy Digital has completed the first phase of its conversion of the Helios campus in West Texas, delivering 133 megawatts of critical IT load to CoreWeave under a 15-year lease and formally shifting one of North America’s once-largest Bitcoin mining sites into the artificial intelligence infrastructure market.

The handover marks a major step in Galaxy’s effort to turn the former crypto mining facility into a high-performance computing campus. The first phase represents about 200 megawatts of gross power capacity, with rent beginning in the second quarter of 2026. CoreWeave, a fast-growing GPU cloud provider, will use the site to support AI workloads that require large amounts of electricity, advanced cooling, and dense computing infrastructure.

Galaxy bought Helios in 2022 for $65 million, when the site was closely tied to the Bitcoin mining boom. Since then, the company has been retrofitting the campus for a different type of digital infrastructure business. Instead of relying mainly on mining economics and cryptocurrency prices, Galaxy is now pursuing long-term lease revenue from companies racing to meet demand for AI computing capacity.

The agreement with CoreWeave covers 526 megawatts of critical IT load across three development phases. Galaxy has said the full 800 megawatts of gross approved power tied to the CoreWeave buildout is expected to generate more than $1 billion in average annual revenue over the life of the contract. Each lease includes two optional five-year extensions, which could give the campus a much longer operating runway if demand remains strong.

A former Bitcoin mine becomes AI infrastructure

The first phase is important because it turns Galaxy’s Helios strategy from a plan into an operating business line. For a company still exposed to digital asset markets, the shift offers a more predictable source of cash flow at a time when crypto prices and mining margins remain volatile.

Helios spans more than 2,200 acres and has 1.63 gigawatts of total approved capacity, with the potential to scale as high as 3.6 gigawatts over time. That scale makes the campus one of Galaxy’s most valuable physical assets and places it directly in the path of the AI infrastructure buildout, where the main constraint is no longer only chips or software, but access to power.

The second phase is already under construction and is expected to deliver another 260 megawatts of critical IT load. Initial handovers for that stage are targeted for the first half of 2027. A third phase would complete CoreWeave’s 526-megawatt commitment.

For Galaxy, led by Mike Novogratz, the project also helps redefine how the market values businesses that were previously viewed mainly through the lens of Bitcoin mining, trading activity, and digital asset holdings. The Helios conversion shows that land, power access, grid interconnections, and data center development expertise may now matter as much as mining machines or crypto reserves.

Why power is now the prize

The Helios deal highlights a broader change across digital infrastructure: electricity has become the core asset. AI models require massive amounts of computing power, and the data centers that support them need reliable access to large-scale energy. Sites that already have power approvals, transmission access, and industrial land are increasingly valuable.

That puts former crypto mining campuses in a strong position. Many were built in areas with available power, lower land costs, and fewer space constraints than major urban markets. While these facilities were originally designed to run mining rigs, their basic advantage was the same one AI data centers now need: the ability to bring large amounts of electricity to computing equipment.

The economics have changed sharply. Bitcoin miners once competed for low-cost power to process transactions and secure the network. Now, many of those same operators are weighing whether the same megawatts can produce more stable returns as AI and high-performance computing infrastructure.

For traders, the shift changes the way these companies are assessed. The question is no longer only how many coins a mining company can produce, or how efficient its mining fleet is. The market is increasingly focused on the quality of long-term leases, the reliability of tenants, construction execution, power delivery timelines, and whether operators can manage complex data center projects.

Mining economics pushed the shift

The pivot away from pure Bitcoin mining has been driven by pressure on mining profitability. In early July 2026, hash price, a key measure of miner revenue per unit of computing power, was hovering near $29 per petahash per second per day. That level reflects the difficult environment miners have faced since the April 2024 Bitcoin reward halving, which cut block rewards from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC.

The halving reduced the amount of new Bitcoin paid to miners, making efficiency and energy costs even more important. Operators with older machines or electricity costs above roughly $0.08 per kilowatt-hour have faced a tougher path to sustained profits. In that environment, long-term data center leases can look more attractive than exposure to daily swings in Bitcoin price, network difficulty, transaction fees, and operating costs.

This does not mean Bitcoin mining is disappearing. Efficient miners with low-cost power can still operate profitably, especially during periods of strong Bitcoin prices. But the Helios conversion shows that large-scale power assets may be too valuable to use only for mining when AI companies are willing to sign long-duration contracts for capacity.

The change is especially relevant for publicly traded mining companies. Industry projections suggest listed mining operators could generate as much as 70% of their revenue from AI and high-performance computing by the end of 2026, up from about 30% at the start of the year. That would represent a major restructuring of the sector in less than 12 months.

CoreWeave brings demand and scale

CoreWeave’s role in the Helios conversion is central. The company has become one of the most closely watched providers of GPU cloud computing, offering infrastructure used to train and run AI models. Its own history also reflects the rapid evolution of the digital asset and computing markets. CoreWeave previously mined Ethereum before Ethereum moved to proof-of-stake, then shifted toward cloud services built around graphics processing units.

The company’s growth supports the case for Galaxy’s strategy. CoreWeave reported first-quarter 2026 revenue of $2.078 billion, up 111.6% from a year earlier. It also reported a contracted revenue backlog of nearly $100 billion, a figure that shows how much demand major AI customers are placing on specialized compute providers.

CoreWeave has guided for full-year 2026 revenue of $12 billion to $13 billion. That level of expected revenue indicates how much capital is flowing into AI compute services, particularly as model developers and corporate customers seek access to specialized chips and data center capacity.

For Galaxy, securing CoreWeave as the tenant reduces some of the uncertainty that can come with speculative infrastructure development. Long-term leases with a large cloud provider create a clearer revenue path than building capacity without committed demand. Still, execution remains important. Galaxy must deliver additional phases on schedule, manage power infrastructure, and complete the transformation of a site originally associated with crypto mining into a facility suitable for high-performance AI workloads.

Galaxy seeks steadier revenue

The Helios expansion comes after Galaxy reported a first-quarter loss of $216 million, pressured by weaker digital asset prices. That result underscored the challenge of relying heavily on businesses tied to crypto market cycles.

The data center division now gives Galaxy a way to balance its digital asset exposure with infrastructure revenue that is less directly tied to the price of Bitcoin, Ethereum, or other tokens. Rent from a long-term lease is not immune to risk, but it is generally more predictable than mining output or trading-linked earnings.

This is the key appeal of the Helios strategy. Galaxy is not abandoning digital assets, but it is building a business that can benefit from the AI infrastructure boom while using assets originally acquired during the crypto cycle. If the company can execute the second and third phases, Helios could become one of the most important contributors to Galaxy’s financial profile.

The campus also provides optionality. With approved capacity of 1.63 gigawatts and possible scaling up to 3.6 gigawatts, Helios could support additional tenants or future expansion beyond the current CoreWeave commitment. In a market where power availability is becoming scarce, that optionality may carry significant value.

AI data center demand accelerates

The broader market backdrop is favorable for owners of power-heavy infrastructure. Active power capacity dedicated to AI data centers is expected to grow from 11.5 gigawatts in 2026 to 43.6 gigawatts by 2031. That projected increase reflects the rapid expansion of AI model training, inference workloads, enterprise adoption, and cloud-based services.

Large technology companies are also committing extraordinary sums to AI infrastructure. Microsoft and Alphabet, the parent company of Google, are each expected to spend tens of billions of dollars on capital expenditures in 2026, with a large portion directed toward AI-related infrastructure. Microsoft’s planned capital spending is expected to exceed $80 billion, while Alphabet’s is expected to surpass $75 billion.

Those figures explain why power-ready sites are attracting attention. Even the largest technology companies can face delays when they need new power connections, permits, land, substations, cooling systems, and construction labor. A site like Helios, with large-scale approvals already in place, can shorten the path from planning to operations.

That is why the digital infrastructure market is increasingly being shaped by physical constraints. AI may be a software-driven trend, but its growth depends on hardware, energy, land, and construction. Companies that control those inputs can become important players, even if they began as crypto miners.

What traders are watching now

The Helios project gives traders a clearer framework for evaluating Galaxy and other companies making similar moves. Revenue quality is becoming more important than headline power numbers alone. A large site has value only if the operator can connect power, complete construction, secure tenants, and operate reliably.

Tenant strength is another key factor. CoreWeave’s rapid growth and large backlog support confidence in demand for the Helios campus, but the AI infrastructure market is evolving quickly. Traders will watch whether cloud providers maintain their spending pace, whether chip supply improves, and whether AI customers continue signing long-term compute contracts at current levels.

Construction timing will also matter. Galaxy has delivered the first phase, but the next phase is larger and is targeted for initial handovers in the first half of 2027. Delays could affect revenue timing and market confidence. Smooth execution, by contrast, would strengthen the case that Galaxy can operate as a serious data center infrastructure company, not just a former mining site owner.

The cost side is also important. Converting a Bitcoin mine into an AI data center is not a simple switch. AI workloads often require more advanced cooling, higher reliability standards, different electrical configurations, and greater networking requirements. These upgrades can be expensive and technically demanding. The success of the Helios transition will depend on whether Galaxy can manage those costs while meeting CoreWeave’s needs.

A new model for former miners

The transformation of Helios may become a model for other former crypto mining operators. The industry spent years building power-intensive facilities to mine digital assets. Now, many of those operators are discovering that the same infrastructure can be repurposed for a market with deeper corporate demand and longer contract terms.

This is a fundamental economic recalibration. During the mining boom, the value of a site was tied closely to the coins it could produce. In the AI era, the value may be tied more closely to the power it can deliver and the customers it can serve.

Galaxy’s completion of the first Helios phase shows how quickly that shift is taking place. A campus purchased for $65 million in 2022 as a major Bitcoin mining asset is now being positioned as a multibillion-dollar AI infrastructure platform. For the digital infrastructure sector, the message is clear: the most valuable asset may not be the hardware inside the building, but the power flowing into it.