Akron Energy Secures $110 Million in Private Funding
Akron Energy, a data center infrastructure company, has closed a massive $110 million private funding round to expand its operations. The company’s CEO, Josh Payne, exclusively shared this news with TechCrunch. The funding round was led by Bluesky Capital Management and included participation from Kestrel 0x1, Nural Capital, and Florence Capital.
Akron Energy launched in 2021 with a 5-megawatt site in Australia. Since then, it has expanded to over 130 megawatts and has also ventured into other countries and regions such as the U.S. and Europe. CEO Payne mentioned that these sites appeal to both bitcoin miners and AI or machine learning clients who have very high power computing demands. For context, 1 megawatt can power between 400 to 900 homes a year, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The company plans to use $80 million to acquire an additional 200-megawatt capacity across new data centers in Ohio, North Carolina, and Texas. This is part of their strategy to increase the company’s total megawatts by 130% by mid-2024. Additionally, Akron Energy already purchased a 100-megawatt facility in Ohio in June. Payne highlighted the attractiveness of the U.S. market due to its enormous domestic customer demand, a robust energy industry, political and regulatory stability, and attractiveness to institutional investors.
The U.S. data center portfolio of Akron Energy primarily consists of institutional-grade bitcoin mining companies. Payne described the company as essentially being a landlord that owns the underlying infrastructure assets. Akron’s business model focuses on strategically acquiring distressed data center assets globally to meet the unprecedented demand for data center capacity of all types.
The remaining $30 million from the funding will be used towards the development of an artificial intelligence cloud service project at Akron’s data center in Norway. This project aims to service generative AI and large language model training markets as there has been a significant market acceleration in demand for these applications. Akron plans to provide the underlying infrastructure layer that the AI sector relies on, as there is currently an undersupply of specialized physical infrastructure to power these products.
Payne also noted the meteoric rise in AI applications in the past year and the potential growth and adoption of bitcoin in mainstream institutional markets as a spot ETF approval looms. These factors make specialized data centers like Akron’s poised to continue scaling exponentially. The company is confident in its ability to meet the growing demand for data center capacity and infrastructure as the digital economy continues to evolve.
