A US cryptomining firm is pivoting to AI and HPC data centers, and has acquired a development site in Arkansas.
Nasdaq-listed Z Squared Inc. this week announced it has acquired a majority stake in Paradox Data and its Union County Campus.
The site, outside El Dorado, Arkansas, will use immersion cooling to cater for high-density workloads. Full details of the site haven't been shared, but the company said the 10-acre site can currently offer 8MW.
Z Squared aims to develop the site further, and intends to request up to 50MW of utility power in future. The firm said it aims to develop a 150MW behind-the-meter campus totaling 170 acres, utilizing grid connectivity alongside natural gas.
"Energized power and high-density immersion cooling are two of the scarcest and most valuable assets in AI infrastructure today, and this transaction would add both, anchored by a campus engineered for firm, large-scale power," said David Halabu, CEO of Z Squared. "Paradox represents exactly the kind of asset that advances our strategy. As we build this company site by site, Paradox is a prime representation of the opportunities we are seeking."
The transaction is structured entirely in newly designated Series D convertible preferred stock, with no cash consideration and no debt financing. The stock is valued at $5 million, giving Z Squared a 51 percent stake in Paradox.
On its website, Florida-based Z Squared describes itself as a digital infrastructure firm with computing equipment distributed across six sites in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Iowa.
The company has historically been focused on mining Dogecoin as well as Litecoin and other altcoins, but is pivoting to AI and HPC.
According to its recent results, the firm relies on Minting Dome Inc as its cryptomining hosting provider, which hosts the firm’s 9,800 ASIC miners. Minting Dome CEO Michelle Burke was previously co-CEO of Z Squared, stepping down in May after a month at the helm.
Z Square merged with biopharmaceutical firm Coeptis Therapeutics last year, with Z Square taking over Coeptis’ place on the Nasdaq and looking to spin off the biopharma business. The merger closed in April of this year.
CEO Halabu recently said the firm was “expanding aggressively” into power generation, data center development, and high-performance compute hosting, and had pending powered site acquisitions in North Carolina and Arkansas.
In May the firm said it aims to reach 100MW of AI-ready capacity within the next 18 months across multiple sites. The firm has entered into a $50 million equity agreement to fund its build-out.
The company previously signed a binding letter of intent to acquire Skycore Digital, which had three active sites in North Carolina that could total up to 42MW. Some 24MW of that is currently energized. That deal is being paid for in $18 million of Series B convertible preferred stock.
Last year cryptomining firm Paradox Data and KRAMBU entered a strategic partnership to build an AI and blockchain data center campus in Pennsylvania, though few details were available.