Bitcoin mining company CleanSpark has announced a strategic expansion into artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) with a major land acquisition in Texas. The company entered a definitive agreement to purchase 447 acres of land in Brazoria County, Texas, as part of a plan to develop a new data center campus.
The initial phase of the project is designed for 300 megawatts (MW) of power capacity, with the potential to expand to a total of 600 MW. The site is strategically chosen for its access to transmission-level power, a critical and increasingly constrained resource for large-scale compute operations. CleanSpark Chairman and CEO Matt Schultz stated, "The demand for scaled, AI-native compute continues to accelerate, and access to transmission-level power in strategically advantageous regions has become increasingly constrained."
This move is part of a broader trend among Bitcoin miners to diversify their business models amid rising operational costs and increasing mining difficulty. Companies like Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA), Core Scientific, Hut 8, Riot Platforms, and TeraWulf have similarly repurposed infrastructure or announced plans to delve deeper into AI and HPC. The Texas deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2026.
CleanSpark's stock (CLSK) reacted positively to the news, rallying more than 6% to trade near $13.34. This acquisition marks the company's second major development in the greater Houston region, following a 271-acre site in Austin County with 285 MW of capacity. Combined, these two sites give CleanSpark a regional portfolio with nearly 890 MW of potential utility support, approaching the one-gigawatt threshold.
The company's strategy focuses on building clustered, multi-phase compute campuses with stable, long-term power access to cater to partners requiring scalable environments for advanced workloads. This pivot occurs as Bitcoin mining difficulty reached an all-time high of approximately 156 trillion in November 2025, underscoring the pressure on mining profitability that is driving industry diversification.
