Bitcoin Miner HIVE Names Former Apple Exec to Lead Cloud Unit in $100 Million Push

HIVE Digital Technologies, the publicly listed Bitcoin (BTC) miner (NASDAQ: HIVE), has announced the appointment of Craig Tavares as President and Chief Operating Officer of its Buzz HPC division, which focuses on GPU Cloud and High-Performance Computing (HPC) services.

HIVE Taps Ex-Apple Executive for Cloud Computing Expansion

The appointment comes as HIVE, a sustainable blockchain and AI infrastructure provider, aims to scale its HPC business to $100 million in revenue. Tavares brings more than two decades of experience in digital infrastructure and cloud services to the role.

“With his unique skillset of leadership, entrepreneurialism, and ethics, alongside his explicit and tacit knowledge of digital infrastructure, cloud, and high-performance computing, he is a true champion of our vision,” said Frank Holmes, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Buzz HPC, a HIVE Digital Technologies company.

Tavares's career spans leadership roles at major technology companies, including Apple, where he led product and program strategy for third-party clouds and data centers. His experience includes launching a global cloud business at Aptum and establishing partnerships with industry giants Microsoft and Amazon Web Services.

The decision follows the Wall Street-listed Bitcoin mining company's fourth-quarter earnings report, which showed $29.2 million in revenue and an adjusted EBITDA of $17.3 million. Although these figures are slightly lower than the previous year’s results, the company has increased its Bitcoin reserves, now holding 2,805 tokens worth approximately $260.8 million.

AI and HPC Move

The new executive's appointment aligns with HIVE's strategy to strengthen its position in the rapidly evolving cloud computing market. The company currently operates a sovereign AI GPU platform powered by renewable energy, which it plans to expand under Tavares's leadership.

“Buzz already provides one of the industry's highest-performance Sovereign AI GPU platforms,” Tavares said. “We will expand it through vertically integrated infrastructure and a suite of differentiated HPC service offerings.”

According to the recent analysis from VanEck, the HPC move seen in the Bitcoin mining industry may unlock almost $40 billion in value for publicly traded miners.

In conjunction with the appointment, HIVE announced the granting of 1,090,000 Restricted Share Units (RSU) to select employees, officers, directors, and consultants, including Tavares. The RSUs are subject to a one-year vesting period under TSX Venture Exchange regulations.

HIVE Digital Technologies also continues to expand its operations across Canada, Sweden, and soon Paraguay, planning to expand its hash rate to 25 EH/s by September.