The cryptocurrency industry is shifting towards AI cloud computing, with mining companies becoming the new gold rush for Nvidia.

According to Forbes, Tether, the stable coin worth $86.5 billion, has purchased 10,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs, worth $420 million, and will also receive a 20% stake in mining company Northern Data.

Northern Data owns 70% of a Tether-associated shell company, and plans to rent out the GPUs to AI start-ups, entering the GPU cloud service industry. This move signals that Bitcoin miners are taking advantage of the booming AI industry and developing new revenue streams.

Northern Data CEO Aroosh Thillainathan said that this deal could make them the largest cloud GPU operator in Europe, outside of the cloud computing giants like Amazon, Microsoft Azure, and Oracle.

This deal is complex, as it involves Tether buying a stake in Northern Data through an Irish shell company called Damoon, and Northern Data acquiring the shell company's 70% shares through a stock exchange.

Northern Data may also opt to purchase the shell company's remaining shares, but the final price is unclear. The deal is yet to be completed.