Tether, a prominent stablecoin issuer, has announced its foray into the field of artificial intelligence (AI) through a subsidiary, in collaboration with Northern Data Group (NB2), a company involved in Bitcoin mining and data cloud services.
The subsidiary, known as Damoon Designated Activity, in which Frankfurt-based Northern Data acquired a majority stake in July, recently made a significant investment of approximately 400 million euros ($427 million) in Nvidia graphic processing units (GPUs), as disclosed in a press release by the German company.
These high-performance GPUs will be integrated into Northern Data’s cloud service, Taiga Cloud, and will become available to customers in the latter part of the fourth quarter.
This move marks another instance of Tether, the leading stablecoin company boasting $83 billion in USDT, expanding beyond its traditional business scope. In the same year, Tether made strategic investments in Bitcoin mining operations in South America and a payment processing venture in Georgia.
Tether has long been under scrutiny in the cryptocurrency industry for its limited transparency concerning the reserves backing its stablecoins and its participation in controversial investment and lending activities.
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Northern Data, a publicly listed data firm, has undergone a transformation from its roots in cryptocurrency mining to providing computing power for AI-related data analysis. This shift was reflected in the company’s stock, which saw a 2.7% increase in value on Thursday.
Paolo Ardoino, Tether’s Chief Technology Officer, expressed enthusiasm about the investment in Northern Data Group, characterizing it as a step into uncharted technological territory.
Importantly, Tether emphasized that this investment will not impact the backing reserves of its stablecoins, ensuring the continued stability of its cryptocurrency offerings.