Auradine Secures $153 Million in Funding, Expands into AI Data Center Solutions

Auradine Raises $153 Million for Bitcoin, AI Businesses - Decrypt

Bitcoin mining firm Auradine has raised $153 million in its latest funding round as it aims to launch a new AI-focused initiative. StepStone Group led the Series C funding round, with participation from Maverick Silicon, Samsung Catalyst Fund, MARA Holdings, and other investors, according to Auradine's statement published on Wednesday. The oversubscribed raise brings the firm's total raised capital to $300 million. Auradine will use its funds to fuel a new business group, AuraLinks AI. The initiative aims to offer open-standards based networking solutions for artificial intelligence data centers -- offerings that are in high demand due to the massive computational power and energy requirements of AI workloads. "Our dual focus on Bitcoin and AI infrastructure places Auradine at the intersection of pivotal technologies that will reshape computing and energy utilization for decades to come," Auradine co-founder and CEO Rajiv Khemani said Wednesday in a statement. "This funding round enables us to scale that vision with greater speed and impact," he added. Auradine's AI push comes as a brewing trade war between Washington D.C. and Beijing has spurred volatility in the crypto market. Bitcoin is trading at $84,925 as of writing time, down 1.3% from its price two weeks ago and 21% from its all-time-high price of roughly $108,000, according to CoinGecko data. The broader crypto market has also experienced heightened volatility since the implementation of U.S. President Donald Trump's aggressive tariffs, losing 3% of its market value in the past 24 hours. Amid the growing instability in the digital assets market, several crypto companies have embraced AI as a means of diversifying their businesses.

Auradine raises $153M to develop Bitcoin mining and AI networking hardware - SiliconANGLE

Data center hardware startup Auradine Inc. today disclosed that it has raised $153 million in Series C funding. The investment was led by StepStone Group with participation from Samsung Catalyst Fund, Qualcomm Ventures and several other backers. Auradine's total outside funding now stands at over $300 million. It disclosed on the occasion that its hardware is now used in the data centers of more than 40 Bitcoin mining companies. "Both Bitcoin and AI convert energy into economic value and require highly energy-efficient, scalable and flexible infrastructure solutions," said Auadine co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Rajiv Khemani. Santa Clara, California-based Auradine sells servers optimized for Bitcoin mining. Bitcoin mines mint cryptocurrency by performing a large number of hashing operations, which are computations that turn a piece of data into a different, usually smaller piece of data. Auradine's servers ship with custom processors specifically geared towards hashing. The company's hardware lineup includes several different types of servers. Some use traditional fans to dissipate the heat they generate during Bitcoin mining. Others feature immersion cooling technology, which works by placing a server's components in non-conductive liquids that carry heat away. Last month, Auradine expanded its hardware lineup with a system called the AH3880. It uses water cooling, which is significantly more efficient than both immersion cooling and fans. The water doesn't contact the server's electronic components, but rather cools so-called cold plates that in turn dissipate heat from the motherboard. The AH3880 ships with a custom chip made using a three-nanometer manufacturing process. According to Auradine, it can manage up to 600 trillion hashing operations per second. The onboard firmware detects when the AH3880 is about to overheat and dials down its performance to lower operating temperatures. Another software feature, EnergyTune, helps decrease the impact of Bitcoin mines on the electricity grids to which they're connected. The technology can automatically lower the AH3880's power usage at times when a utility experiences elevated demand from other customers. Once electricity consumption returns to usual levels, EnergyTune boosts hashing speeds. Auradine says that the technology avoids the frequent reboots required by competing software. The company's other major focus area is the data center networking market. Against the backdrop of today's funding milestone, it launched a new business unit called AuraLinks AI to lead its efforts in this segment. The unit includes former staffers from Cisco Systems Inc., Juniper Networks Inc. and Broadcom Inc., a major supplier of networking chips.

Auradine raises $153M, debuts business group for AI data centers

Auradine is aiming to expand its presence in the Bitcoin mining market, but it faces strong competition from established Chinese manufacturers. Auradine, a Silicon Valley-based startup that specializes in equipment for AI data centers and Bitcoin mining, has announced a raise of $153 million in a Series C funding round. The new capital will go to increasing the company's product suite of infrastructure for AI and blockchain technology. The Series C round was led by StepStone Group and included participation from Maverick Silicon, Premji Invest, Samsung Catalyst Fund, Qualcomm Ventures, and others. Auradine said the round was oversubscribed but did not disclose by how much or at what valuation the funds were raised. Along with the funding round, Auradine announced the launch of AuraLinks AI -- its new business group dedicated to networking solutions targeting data centers' energy and cooling costs. According to Goldman Sachs, energy demand due to AI data centers is expected to rise 165% by 2030. Building a small-scale AI data center can cost $10 million to $50 million, while large-scale AI data centers can cost hundreds of millions. Auradine designs and manufactures application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and related systems for Bitcoin mining. The company sees a strategic opportunity in the current US-China trade tensions and US President Trump's push to boost domestic manufacturing. Among its main competitors is the Chinese-based firm Bitmain, which reportedly holds a 90% market share in the Bitcoin manufacturing sector. Related: How to mine Bitcoin: A beginner's guide to mining BTC According to Precedence Research, the cryptocurrency mining market was valued at $2.5 billion in 2024 and is expected to have a compound annual growth rate of 13% until 2034. If that prediction is accurate, the mining market will reach a size of $8.2 billion by 2034. The rising Bitcoin hashrate, coupled with the increasing energy demands following each halving, is intensifying competition in the mining sector. As a result, the push for greater efficiency and advanced technology may create openings for new players to gain market share. Trump's dual desires to make the US "the crypto capital of the planet" and bring manufacturing on-shore may also play a role. The US accounts for over 40% of the Bitcoin (BTC) hashrate, but US-based miners still rely heavily on China-manufactured rigs. Auradine's $80 million Series B round, like its Series C, was oversubscribed. In total, the company has raised over $300 million across all funding rounds.