Phoenix Group Bets on Lyon to Anchor $8 Billion AI Push | Crypto Work Pro
Phoenix
Group is pushing deeper into artificial intelligence after a 43% income slide
in 2025, signing French developer DC Max to construct an 18-megawatt AI knowledge middle
in Lyon, the primary European deployment in what the Abu Dhabi-listed firm says
will scale to more than one gigawatt of capability.
The Lyon
facility is the inaugural web site below what Phoenix is looking its European Data
Center Platform, a partnership structured round DC Max’s pipeline that the
corporations worth at roughly $8 billion.
Phoenix
stated it has acquired the land, secured permits and lined up grid entry, with
construction set to start in July 2026 and handover scheduled for the fourth
quarter of 2027 or the primary quarter of 2028.
The transfer
follows a now-familiar playbook within the Bitcoin mining sector. Full-year income
at Phoenix (ADX: PHX)
fell to $117.7 million from $205.7 million the 12 months earlier than, whereas the firm
reported a $271.7 million loss attributable to shareholders in opposition to a $167.4
million revenue in 2024.
Like Wall Street friends Core Scientific,
Riot Platforms and Bitfarms, Phoenix is steering its power-hungry infrastructure towards AI tenants
keen to pay a number of instances more per megawatt than present coin economics
help.
From Mining Losses to AI
Sites
The 2025
annual report Phoenix revealed final month confirmed the size of the decline.
Trading income dropped 69% 12 months on 12 months, internet hosting income fell 62% and
self-mining income slipped 21%, dragging full-year income beneath $118 million.
Earnings
per share swung from a revenue of $0.028 to a loss of $0.045, with unrealized
truthful worth losses of $223.3 million on digital asset holdings driving most of
the bottom-line harm.
The pivot
has been telegraphed in steps. Last summer season, Phoenix unveiled a digital asset treasury
holding Bitcoin and Solana, turning into the primary ADX-listed company to formalize such a construction as
an operational buffer in opposition to mining cash-flow volatility .
Around the
similar time, it disclosed inner recruitment for AI divisions and started
scouting websites for AI and high-performance computing capability. The Lyon deal
turns that scouting into the company’s first onerous dedication outdoors the Gulf.
Co-founder
and Group CEO Munaf Ali described the announcement as more than incremental,
calling it “a genuine inflection point” for the firm. He added that
“the 1GW ambition is not a ceiling; it is a starting point.”
Bitcoin Miners Crowd Into
AI Real Estate
The
repositioning throughout the listed mining sector has accelerated via 2025 and
into 2026 as post-halving margin strain squeezed coin economics.
Analysts
have estimated up to 20% of the industry’s energy capability may very well be repurposed
for AI and HPC by the top of 2027, with Goldman Sachs forecasting U.S. knowledge
middle energy demand to grow at a 15% compound annual fee via 2030.
Nasdaq-listed
Core Scientific just lately secured a financing
facility from Morgan Stanley of up to $1 billion to fund its conversion from crypto mining to
high-density colocation.
Riot
Platforms appointed three new board members with knowledge middle and AI expertise,
together with a former Meta government. Bitfarms went additional, renaming itself Keel
Infrastructure and halting all new Bitcoin mining investment.
The
financial logic is simple. Bitcoin miners usually commerce at 6 to 12
instances EBITDA, whereas knowledge middle operators commerce between 20 and 25 instances. A
clean operational pivot, with long-term tenant contracts changing risky
coin income, can help a significant a number of re-rating over time.
France Targets the
Hyperscaler Backlog
Demand for
AI compute in Europe has run forward of provide, with hyperscalers and enormous
enterprises reserving capability years prematurely. Traditional new-build timelines
of 36 to 48 months go away most operators struggling to keep tempo.
Lyon provides
a number of benefits for builders keen to transfer rapidly. France’s
second-largest metropolis has an industrial base, dense electrical infrastructure and
land costs effectively beneath these round Paris, which has emerged as Europe’s most
contested knowledge middle market.
DC Max additionally
brings present permits and grid agreements on some of its websites, which Phoenix
stated permits it to compress the standard timeline.
“The
demand is there. The websites are there,” DC Max Chief Executive Romain
Fremont stated in a assertion, including that the tie-up provides the French developer
entry to capital and operational depth that might have been tough to
assemble alone.
A 1GW Ambition Meets
Execution Risk
The Lyon
web site joins roughly 550 megawatts of capability Phoenix already operates throughout
the UAE, Oman, North America and Ethiopia, infrastructure initially constructed for
Bitcoin mining and now being repositioned for AI and HPC workloads.
The firm
additionally holds a 13.9% stake in Bitzero, a data-center-focused company that listed
on the Canadian Securities Exchange final 12 months, whereas Ali himself has been shopping for shares to back the pivot strategy.
DC Max, for
its half, claims a roughly two-gigawatt portfolio and says it’s backed by a
group with more than €6 billion in investment expertise.
Phoenix
Group debuted on the ADX on the finish of 2023, and since then its share price has
fallen 60% to the present stage of AED 0.90.
Phoenix
Group is pushing deeper into artificial intelligence after a 43% income slide
in 2025, signing French developer DC Max to construct an 18-megawatt AI knowledge middle
in Lyon, the primary European deployment in what the Abu Dhabi-listed firm says
will scale to more than one gigawatt of capability.
The Lyon
facility is the inaugural web site below what Phoenix is looking its European Data
Center Platform, a partnership structured round DC Max’s pipeline that the
corporations worth at roughly $8 billion.
Phoenix
stated it has acquired the land, secured permits and lined up grid entry, with
construction set to start in July 2026 and handover scheduled for the fourth
quarter of 2027 or the primary quarter of 2028.
The transfer
follows a now-familiar playbook within the Bitcoin mining sector. Full-year income
at Phoenix (ADX: PHX)
fell to $117.7 million from $205.7 million the 12 months earlier than, whereas the firm
reported a $271.7 million loss attributable to shareholders in opposition to a $167.4
million revenue in 2024.
Like Wall Street friends Core Scientific,
Riot Platforms and Bitfarms, Phoenix is steering its power-hungry infrastructure towards AI tenants
keen to pay a number of instances more per megawatt than present coin economics
help.
From Mining Losses to AI
Sites
The 2025
annual report Phoenix revealed final month confirmed the size of the decline.
Trading income dropped 69% 12 months on 12 months, internet hosting income fell 62% and
self-mining income slipped 21%, dragging full-year income beneath $118 million.
Earnings
per share swung from a revenue of $0.028 to a loss of $0.045, with unrealized
truthful worth losses of $223.3 million on digital asset holdings driving most of
the bottom-line harm.
The pivot
has been telegraphed in steps. Last summer season, Phoenix unveiled a digital asset treasury
holding Bitcoin and Solana, turning into the primary ADX-listed company to formalize such a construction as
an operational buffer in opposition to mining cash-flow volatility .
Around the
similar time, it disclosed inner recruitment for AI divisions and started
scouting websites for AI and high-performance computing capability. The Lyon deal
turns that scouting into the company’s first onerous dedication outdoors the Gulf.
Co-founder
and Group CEO Munaf Ali described the announcement as more than incremental,
calling it “a genuine inflection point” for the firm. He added that
“the 1GW ambition is not a ceiling; it is a starting point.”
Bitcoin Miners Crowd Into
AI Real Estate
The
repositioning throughout the listed mining sector has accelerated via 2025 and
into 2026 as post-halving margin strain squeezed coin economics.
Analysts
have estimated up to 20% of the industry’s energy capability may very well be repurposed
for AI and HPC by the top of 2027, with Goldman Sachs forecasting U.S. knowledge
middle energy demand to grow at a 15% compound annual fee via 2030.
Nasdaq-listed
Core Scientific just lately secured a financing
facility from Morgan Stanley of up to $1 billion to fund its conversion from crypto mining to
high-density colocation.
Riot
Platforms appointed three new board members with knowledge middle and AI expertise,
together with a former Meta government. Bitfarms went additional, renaming itself Keel
Infrastructure and halting all new Bitcoin mining investment.
The
financial logic is simple. Bitcoin miners usually commerce at 6 to 12
instances EBITDA, whereas knowledge middle operators commerce between 20 and 25 instances. A
clean operational pivot, with long-term tenant contracts changing risky
coin income, can help a significant a number of re-rating over time.
France Targets the
Hyperscaler Backlog
Demand for
AI compute in Europe has run forward of provide, with hyperscalers and enormous
enterprises reserving capability years prematurely. Traditional new-build timelines
of 36 to 48 months go away most operators struggling to keep tempo.
Lyon provides
a number of benefits for builders keen to transfer rapidly. France’s
second-largest metropolis has an industrial base, dense electrical infrastructure and
land costs effectively beneath these round Paris, which has emerged as Europe’s most
contested knowledge middle market.
DC Max additionally
brings present permits and grid agreements on some of its websites, which Phoenix
stated permits it to compress the standard timeline.
“The
demand is there. The websites are there,” DC Max Chief Executive Romain
Fremont stated in a assertion, including that the tie-up provides the French developer
entry to capital and operational depth that might have been tough to
assemble alone.
A 1GW Ambition Meets
Execution Risk
The Lyon
web site joins roughly 550 megawatts of capability Phoenix already operates throughout
the UAE, Oman, North America and Ethiopia, infrastructure initially constructed for
Bitcoin mining and now being repositioned for AI and HPC workloads.
The firm
additionally holds a 13.9% stake in Bitzero, a data-center-focused company that listed
on the Canadian Securities Exchange final 12 months, whereas Ali himself has been shopping for shares to back the pivot strategy.
DC Max, for
its half, claims a roughly two-gigawatt portfolio and says it’s backed by a
group with more than €6 billion in investment expertise.
Phoenix
Group debuted on the ADX on the finish of 2023, and since then its share price has
fallen 60% to the present stage of AED 0.90.
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