Canada's HIVE secures $129M loan to buy GB200 cluster for Cohere sovereign AI contract

HIVE Digital Technologies said on October 28 that BUZZ Alpha Cloud, an indirect subsidiary, has signed a loan and security agreement with an institutional lender for a fixed-rate credit facility of approximately $129 million to buy an advanced sovereign AI graphics processor cluster. All dollar amounts are in US dollars.

The terms: fixed rate, three-year amortization, outright ownership at maturity

The facility carries a fixed interest rate of 9.0% per year over a three-year term, with principal and interest amortizing over the life of the loan, at about 80% loan-to-cost. It is secured by the GPUs and related assets of BUZZ Alpha Cloud, supported by a limited recourse guarantee from BUZZ High Performance Computing (BUZZ HPC) and a pledge of BUZZ HPC's equity in BUZZ Alpha Cloud; beyond that, BUZZ HPC is not otherwise liable. At the end of the term, HIVE will own the GPUs outright with no residual payment, and because the financing is debt rather than equity, no HIVE common shares are issued.

Where the cluster goes: Cohere's three-year sovereign AI deal

Proceeds will buy a cluster of NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 systems valued at about $165 million, with delivery expected toward the end of Q4 2026, for deployment under the three-year fixed-term sovereign AI customer contract with Cohere announced on June 18, 2026. That contract is worth $225 million in total, covering GPU compute, connectivity and storage revenue. The equity portion of the cluster cost beyond the loan is being funded from proceeds of previously issued 0% convertible bonds totalling $245 million.

President and CEO Aydin Kilic said HIVE has signed $600 million in total contract value across three GPU off-take agreements this year, and described the per-unit price of the GB200 hardware as attractive given what he called substantial NVIDIA hardware price increases over the prior six months. The project-level financing, repayable from contract revenue, shows AI infrastructure firms funding expensive hardware upgrades against long-term customer contracts; investors will next watch GPU delivery timing, Cohere contract performance and compliance with debt-service coverage covenants.