Bitcoin Mining Giant Bitfury Pivots to Launch $1 Billion Ethical Tech Investment Fund

Bitfury, known for its Bitcoin mining, launches $1 billion initiative to invest in ethical tech | Fortune

The company announced on Tuesday that it would launch a $1 billion investment initiative, where it aims to support mission-driven founders. It aims to spend $200 million in the next year and the rest of the fund in the next several years. "We were ourselves mission-driven entrepreneurs that embraced Bitcoin, and we brought the power of Bitcoin to the world," said George Kikvadze, the executive vice chairman, in an interview with Fortune. "Now we want to take our winnings and enable others to go and win and make the world a better place." Bitfury is not the first company to invest in both crypto and AI. Major tech companies like Google, Apple, and X-all racing for superiority in AI-are exploring blockchain technology, as President Donald Trump's administration has loosened regulation of the crypto sector. Bitfury says it doesn't have an exact list yet of the companies it hopes to invest in. However, it plans to invest in ethical companies involved in AI, quantum computing, and transparent decentralized systems, among other categories. It also aims to invest in self-sovereign identity, which is a way for people to have complete control of their own data using cryptography. Vavilov, Bitfury's co-founder and CEO, says that this technology will be important as AI avatars become universal, and it becomes evermore difficult to determine who is real and who is fake. Kikvadze added that this might not be the reality for 20 or 30 years, but he stressed the importance of looking far into the future when investing in technology. "We're big fans of [the American architect] Buckminster Fuller who said, 'you never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model completely obsolete,'" Kikvadze said. Bitfury made a majority of its money through its mining operations, which include its two spun-off companies, both listed on the Nasdaq. Cipher Mining (CIFR) began operations in the U.S. and is worth about $5.5 billion, and Hut8 (HUT) began in Canada and has a market cap of about $4 billion. Bitfury also established and co-founded two companies that offer AI infrastructure, LiquidStack and Axelera AI, respectively. The former cools data centers, and the latter designs AI software and hardware. Vavilov said his company is pivoting into this investment fund because of the recent convergence of AI and crypto. "Why now? Because AI is taking over, and we see the big synergy between AI and decentralized systems," he said. "We believe that the future will be a combination of AI and decentralized systems working together, and we have huge experience in the crypto space and in AI."

Bitfury pivots to launch $1B tech fund after 14 years of mining Bitcoin

Bitcoin miner Bitfury started up in 2011, but has now pivoted to tech investing and will pour $1 billion into ethical AI and crypto startups. Bitfury is the latest Bitcoin miner to pivot away from the mining sector, announcing it will become an investment firm focused on "ethical emerging technologies," including artificial intelligence and crypto. Bitfury said on Tuesday that it would pour $1 billion into AI and crypto startups as early as the fourth quarter of 2025, with the funds coming from its previous operations, successful investments, and a network of investors. "Our mission is to close the gap between innovation and ethics by acting as a catalyst for founders and investors building technologies that serve people and promote long-term resilience," said Bitfury CEO Val Vavilov. Bitfury was one of the first companies to start mining Bitcoin (BTC) in 2011 and had spun out the NASDAQ-listed Cipher Mining (CIFR) and Hut 8 (HUT), currently the 2nd and 7th largest Bitcoin miners by market cap. Many Bitcoin miners have been fully or partially pulling away from the industry as the cost and difficulty of mining crypto have increased, with some, such as Bitfarms, converting their sites to power AI. Bitfury told Fortune that it would focus on AI, quantum computing, and "transparent decentralized systems." "AI is taking over," Vavilov said when asked why the company will focus on those technologies. "We see the big synergy between AI and decentralized systems." Bitfury has hands-on experience in AI, having built immersion-cooling solution LiquidStack to cool AI data centers, while also co-founding Netherlands-based chip company Axelera AI. Related: Institutions lean into crypto despite Bitcoin price slump Vavilov's added that self-sovereign identity solutions enabled through cryptography are another area of focus for the company. Profitability margins in the Bitcoin mining sector continue to be squeezed amid a 52% rise in Bitcoin mining difficulty over the last 12 months and a 26.2% fall in Bitcoin's price from its $126,080 set on Oct. 6 The headwinds have resulted in the stock prices of 20 of the 22 largest Bitcoin mining companies by market cap falling over the last month.