Bitdeer Technologies Group (BTDR) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Bitdeer Technologies Business Update Tydal AS Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your speaker today, Tesh Dahya, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and thank you for joining us today. We appreciate your time and your continued interest in Bitdeer. Before we begin, I want to note that today's call is a transaction-specific investor update. We are not discussing quarterly financial results and will not be taking questions at the conclusion of prepared remarks. A replay of this call, together with the press release and investor presentation we published this morning will be available on our Investor Relations website at ir.bitdeer.com. Please note that this call may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements involve risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied. We encourage you to review the risk factors discussed in our most recent annual report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC as well as subsequent filings. We will also reference certain non-GAAP financial measures and operating metrics on this call. Please refer to this morning's press release for additional disclosure. Joining me on the call today are Haris Basit, our Chief Strategy Officer; Michael Potter, our Chief Financial Officer; and Haakon Bryhni, Chairman of the Tydal Datacenter. With that, I will now turn the call over to Haris.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today for what is a historic milestone for Bitdeer. Today, we are officially announcing our entrance into the AI infrastructure colocation market. We have executed a 16-year data center lease and services agreement at our Tydal campus in Norway that represents approximately $4.7 billion in contracted base-term revenue. With an embedded 8-year renewal option, the potential contract value increases to approximately $8 billion over 24 years. We are pleased to be working with Volta, Dell Technologies, NVIDIA, JPMorgan and their partners to provide one of the largest and most advanced AI data centers in Norway. We have built what we believe is one of the most strategically positioned power portfolios in the world, including approximately 3 gigawatts of capacity across multiple continents in locations that are highly suited for AI and HPC infrastructure. Today's announcement is a critical proof point that our portfolio can be converted into long-term contracted revenue streams with high-quality partnerships. Given the depth of our 3-gigawatt power portfolio, there are many opportunities to replicate and build on what we have achieved here today. We view this agreement as the first of a series of agreements that will progressively convert our power assets into contracted AI and HPC infrastructure revenue at scale. Now I will walk you through the specifics of the partnership. We are leasing 121 IT megawatts supported by 133 gross megawatts to Volta Tydal AS, a subsidiary of Volta. Volta is a fully integrated AI infrastructure platform focused on building the utility of compute. Founded by former Brookfield executives, Volta has already established a global footprint with committed capital and top-tier talent across London, New York and Palo Alto. They are backed by institutional capital with notable investors, including Azora Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, NVIDIA and the family office of Michael Dell. Volta's sole end customer for this site will be a leading AI lab. The entire 121 IT megawatts are being configured in 4 existing data halls to run NVIDIA's Vera Rubin GPUs with Dell Technologies serving as the technology provider. The lease is divided into 2 equal-sized phases. Phase 1 is targeted to begin December 31, 2026, and Phase 2 is targeted to begin March 31, 2027. Bitdeer is in early phases of development for 2 additional data halls in Tydal that are outside of this lease, totaling 47 gross megawatts. The target date for these 2 data halls is the second half of 2027. Given the level of interest in our power infrastructure and overall strength of the AI/HPC market, we plan to retain flexibility for the remaining 47 megawatts for AI/HPC use cases so we can optimize the strategic value of the Tydal site. Volta's obligations are anticipated to be supported by a credit backstop issued separately by JPMorgan and top-tier global financial institutions totaling approximately $1.3 billion. This credit enhancement is structured without dilution to Bitdeer shareholders. It preserves our full ownership of the Tydal campus while enabling Volta with a durable, well-capitalized counterparty commitment behind the lease. Bitdeer and Volta are well aligned in our vision and complementary in our capabilities and expertise, bringing together Volta's platform and customer relationships with Bitdeer's power and infrastructure position. This is the kind of long-term alignment we believe benefits both companies. The strategic significance of this agreement has the following 5 points. First, it converts power infrastructure into long-term contracted revenue. This is a core financial pillar of Bitdeer, own, develop and expand superior power assets and then convert them into long-duration contracted cash flows through high-quality relationships. Second, it diversifies our revenue mix. The Tydal agreement accelerates the process of shifting a significant portion of our revenue from Bitcoin into AI. Third, it establishes a repeatable template we intend to carry forward as we expand our AI portfolio into future agreements, including for our key North American sites. The modified gross lease structure, the credit enhancement framework structured without shareholder dilution and the phased delivery approach are all features that we expect to carry forward into future agreements. Fourth, it demonstrates our ability to develop and operate a leading -edge AI data center at scale for the most demanding customers. Fifth, we plan to raise additional debt capital to fund our infrastructure growth. Given our relatively limited remaining CapEx needs at Tydal, we expect this approach to drive greater capital efficiency and generate significant excess capital to help accelerate additional AI/HPC projects, particularly for our key North American sites. I will now turn the call over to Haakon Bryhni, Chairman of our Tydal Datacenter, to discuss the site's unique operational advantages, delivery time line and our community commitments in Norway.

Thank you, Haris. At Tydal, we have created a purpose-built and purpose-operated infrastructure for high-performance computing applications. Located in the Kirkvollen industrial area of Trøndelag, Norway, Tydal stands out in the European market for many reasons. Key among them, the infrastructure is fully energized today. Time to power is among the key bottlenecks facing AI developers globally, and Tydal addresses that constraint directly. We are delivering the 121 IT megawatts to Volta across 2 rapid, equal-sized phases. Phase 1 covers 60.5 IT megawatts across data halls 2 and 3 and a portion of data hall 1 with a target commencement date of December 31, 2026. Phase 2 covers the remaining 60.5 IT megawatts in data hall 4 and the remaining part of hall 1, targeting commencement by March 31, 2027. The site is deeply integrated into Norway's renewable energy ecosystem. Tydal is connected directly to Norway's hydropower grid with access to renewable power in a jurisdiction where power availability is both reliable and competitively priced. Our power stability is backed by a highly redundant regional network of 16 hydropower stations and the wind farm. This allows us to enable zero carbon baseload power, providing a meaningful advantage as hyperscale and AI tenants face increasing scrutiny around the carbon profile of their infrastructure. To support the demanding requirements of NVIDIA's Vera Rubin and NVL72 racks, we are upgrading the electrical infrastructure to meet the strict 4N/3 redundancy. The entire 180-megawatt gross capacity is protected by 4 independent 60-megawatt hour battery energy storage systems. Our cooling infrastructure is equally advanced. We utilize 2 independent water supplies, enabling a closed-loop hydro cooling system that achieves a highly efficient PUE of approximately 1.1. Connectivity is resilient and carrier neutral, featuring redundant fiber optic infrastructure with existing providers, including Telenor and NTE Telekom. Importantly, Bitdeer's commitment extends beyond our facilities' walls. We are actively creating high-tech jobs in Norway and fostering a circular economy. We plan to export waste heat from our data halls to an adjacent business area of approximately 112,000 square meters, which is being developed for businesses that can utilize the heat, including potential local food production. This ensures that our rapid growth provides substantial, sustainable local value creation for the Tydal municipality. I will now turn the call over to Michael Potter, our Chief Financial Officer, to discuss the financial structure, unit economics and capital raising plans.

Thank you, Haakon. Good morning, everyone. The economics of this modified gross lease start Bitdeer firmly on our journey to become a significant player in the AI infrastructure industry. Our starting combined rate over the 16-year base term is approximately $160 per kilowatt per month, inclusive of both base rent and service fees. Electricity costs are fully reimbursed by the tenant on a pass-through basis, entirely protecting us from energy price volatility. Because the agreement includes a 3% annual escalator on both the base rent and the service fee, our average realized rate over the 16-year base term is approximately $202 per kilowatt per month, consistent with market escalators for long-duration data center leases. To put that into aggregate numbers, over the 16-year base term, we expect to generate an average annual revenue of $2.4 million per IT megawatt. At the site level, this drives an expected average annual revenue of approximately $290 million. These economics reflect the durability of a long-term, largely pass-through lease structure with a well-capitalized tenant, translating to an estimated NOI margin of approximately 90%. From a capital expenditure perspective, we expect to significantly benefit from our previous development because we are developing from an existing powered infrastructure at Tydal rather than building a greenfield position, our remaining CapEx is approximately $500 million. This equates to approximately $4 million per IT megawatt with 121 megawatts of critical IT power. To fund this build-out, we plan to raise additional debt financing. Given the strength of the expected credit backstop, we are actively engaged with leading financial institutions. We expect this additional debt financing to fully fund our remaining capital requirements at Tydal as well as provide significant additional capital for future projects. We expect to provide further detail on our financing approach as the development plan is finalized. I will now hand the call back to Haris for brief closing remarks.

Thank you, Michael, and thank you all for joining us this morning. We are proud of this agreement and what it represents for Bitdeer and for our partnership with Volta. Today's announcement demonstrates that Bitdeer's global power portfolio is the foundation for a scalable AI infrastructure business. We look forward to updating investors as we reach Phase 1 commencement, advance our development plan and execute across additional sites in our portfolio. Thank you for your continued support of Bitdeer. We are just getting started.

Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect. Thank you.