Bitfarms becomes Keel Infrastructure, exits Bitcoin for AI power

Gagnon's pivot was inspired by the March 2024 deal in which Core Scientific refashioned a Texas mining facility as an AI data center for CoreWeave. He took the CEO role in July 2024 amid a hostile $930 million takeover bid from Riot Platforms, which was later settled with Riot naming a director and then selling its shares. Keel's model is deliberately narrow: it supplies land, buildings, and power, but not GPUs, which Gagnon says make up as much as 70% of data center costs. The company has raised almost $600 million in convertible debt and another almost $300 million by selling its Bitcoin holdings, but it is burning cash while it waits for leases. Its three priority projects are Panther Creek and Sharon in Pennsylvania and a hydro site in Moses Lake, Washington; at Moses Lake all three permit categories are secured and construction is under way, while the Pennsylvania sites still need environmental permits. Gagnon argues that as AI shifts toward inference, proximity to customers will command a premium, and he points to Pennsylvania's support for responsible data center development as a tailwind.