FTX's Genesis Digital Assets Pivots to AI in $900M SWI Deal

SWI Group has raised approximately $900 million (€800 million) to expand its data center and AI computing operations, which now include the mining venture formerly tied to defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX. The investment company announced the capital raise on Monday, earmarking the funds to scale infrastructure across Europe and the United States.

At the center of the deal is Genesis Digital Assets, a Bitcoin mining firm in which FTX held a 20% stake before its November 2022 bankruptcy. Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried allegedly directed Alameda Research to invest over $1 billion in Genesis between 2021 and 2022. SWI Group first acquired a "significant shareholding" in Genesis for $500 million in June, before increasing its position to 70% by August, allowing the company to rename the mining operation SWI Digital. Genesis currently operates 15 facilities with 1.3 gigawatts of capacity.

The acquisition marks a notable shift in strategy, transforming a crypto mining operation born from one of the industry's most high-profile collapses into a broader AI computing platform. SWI co-founder and CEO Max-Hervé George confirmed that all legal disputes connected to FTX's stake in Genesis had been resolved, clearing the path for the mining infrastructure to be absorbed into SWI's data center network.

The move comes as Bitcoin miners increasingly face pressure to diversify revenue streams amid tightening margins and rising scrutiny from lenders. The pivot to AI compute reflects a growing industry trend, with mining operators leveraging their energy and cooling infrastructure to serve the surging demand for AI training and inference workloads.