Novogratz Pushes Galaxy Past Bitcoin Mining Into $1B AI Power Business

Galaxy Digital finished the first phase of its Helios data center campus in West Texas on July 6, 2026, delivering 133 megawatts of critical IT load to Coreweave.

The site, located about 60 miles from Lubbock in Dickens County, started as a bitcoin mining facility built by Argo Blockchain in 2021. Galaxy bought it in late 2022 for roughly $65 million after Argo ran into financial trouble during the crypto winter.

Bitcoin mining margins tightened after the April 2024 halving. Power costs rose, difficulty climbed, and AI companies started paying more for the same electricity miners had relied on. Galaxy read the shift and moved.

Coreweave signed on as anchor tenant in March 2025 under a 15-year lease. The company exercised two more options over the following months, bringing its total commitment to 526 megawatts of critical IT load across three phases, covering the full 800 megawatts of gross power currently approved at the site.

Crews stripped out immersion cooling tanks and ASIC racks built for mining. They installed Tier III N+1 redundant power systems, high-density electrical infrastructure for GPU clusters, and more than 100 miles of fiber laterals.

Rent on Phase I started in the second quarter of 2026. Galaxy says the full 526 MW buildout, once operational, will generate more than $1 billion in average annual revenue. Phase I alone is projected to bring in about $4.5 billion in lease payments over 15 years.

Galaxy funded the work with a $1.4 billion project-level debt facility, about $350 million in equity, and a separate $460 million raise from an outside asset manager in late 2025.

Mike Novogratz, founder and CEO of Galaxy, remarked that the company proved it can execute hyperscale AI construction on budget and on schedule. He said, ‘Helios is now generating revenue across its entire 133 MW of IT load, and greenfield work on Phase II is already underway. The demand for high-density, AI-ready power is not a cycle; it is a structural shift, and Galaxy is built to meet it.’

Phase II is already under construction on 260 MW of additional critical IT load, with data hall deliveries expected in the first half of 2027. Phase III is targeted for 2028.

The arrangement mirrors a broader pattern among bitcoin miners. Sites built for cheap power, open land, and substation access are being repurposed for AI training and inference, where tenants like Coreweave pay steadier, contracted rates.

Galaxy has expanded its land control at Helios to more than 2,200 acres. Approved power capacity now stands at 1.63 GW, with potential to scale toward 3.6 GW pending further grid studies.

Roughly 830 MW of approved capacity at Helios remains uncontracted as of early 2026. Galaxy has signaled openness to additional tenants and is also weighing a second campus near Waco.

Source: https://news.bitcoin.com/novogratz-pushes-galaxy-past-bitcoin-mining-into-1b-ai-power-business/