volta

Multiple venture capital firms in Silicon Valley are competing to secure GPU computing power to provide exclusive resources for their AI startups. a16z established a computing power pool of about 20,000 GPUs as early as 2024 and is negotiating expansion with data center companies Switch and Volta. General Catalyst plans to build a data center for its portfolio companies and has brought in the former head of NVIDIA DGX Cloud in May this year to oversee AI infrastructure operations.Even if AI startups complete their financing, they may not be able to rent GPUs in a timely manner. In April this year, major cloud providers like Microsoft were reported to prioritize allocating computing power to internal teams and large clients, leaving some startups facing months of waiting. a16z previously disclosed that during times of computing power shortages, prices that could originally be secured with a six-month contract might require a three-year commitment. Model training requires a large amount of GPU usage in a short period, while inference demand is difficult to predict, making it easy to waste funds by locking in computing power for several years in advance.a16z is concentrating on purchasing and leasing computing power through the Oxygen project, redistributing it to its portfolio companies, allowing them to access prices and contract terms typically reserved for large clients. In August this year, a16z co-led a $300 million financing round for Volta, which is valued at $2.4 billion, with investments covering both AI startups and data center companies providing computing power. The small venture capital firm Crucible Capital has built a cluster with 576 NVIDIA B300 GPUs for its portfolio companies to test, while also selling some computing power to a cutting-edge AI laboratory. This model allows venture capital firms to take on investments that were previously mainly borne by cloud providers and data center operators.

According to Bloomberg, JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs are leading a $5 billion loan underwriting deal for AI cloud service company Volta Infrastructure Holdings (Volta AI), but are only underwriting $1.3 billion of the term loan to reduce their own risk exposure.It is reported that this $1.3 billion term loan deal will be used to pay for Volta's leasing fees for the data center of Bitcoin mining company Bitdeer. So far, representatives from JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, and Volta have declined to comment on the matter.

Energy developer Fusion Source Energy (FSE) and its partners have signed a memorandum of understanding with the on-chain physical asset platform Loaf to promote the issuance of over $500 million in Australian photovoltaic and battery projects on-chain, covering more than 1,000 hectares, led by the over 200 megawatt Project Amber. According to the memorandum, the funds raised are expected to accelerate project development and expand Amber's battery capacity.Amber is a utility-scale photovoltaic park that will deploy over 200 megawatts of photovoltaic and multi-hour battery storage on-site, with an expected annual power generation sufficient to meet the electricity needs of over 70,000 households, or equivalent to the electricity demand of a 50 megawatt data center. The project pipeline also includes battery storage assets below 5 megawatts and distributed energy resources, which are modular assets closer to the electricity end, capable of forming diversified energy revenue across multiple sites in Australia.FSE CEO Weiwei Shi stated that Amber is one of the largest hybrid on-site projects in the Southern Hemisphere, which have traditionally only been open to a few institutional investors. Loaf can expand the investor base without adding extra friction and provide continuous, transparent pricing for the assets.Loaf stated that Project Amber will become a key asset in its ecosystem. As the project matures and begins trading, users will be able to go long or short and use these assets within the on-chain financial ecosystem. Loaf will participate in the on-chain trading and issuance of physical assets, allowing users to access the economic upside and returns of related infrastructure assets.

According to Bloomberg, informed sources revealed that JPMorgan Chase has begun preliminary discussions with potential lenders to seek a $5 billion debt financing plan to support Volta Infra Holdings Ltd. in building artificial intelligence data centers.Volta AI completed a $300 million venture capital financing earlier this month, with a valuation of $2.4 billion, aiming to help more tech companies access the costly resources of artificial intelligence chips.

According to Bloomberg, AI cloud infrastructure company Volta Infra Holdings announced the completion of $300 million in venture financing, with a valuation of $2.4 billion, led jointly by Andreessen Horowitz and Altimeter Capital, with participation from Nvidia and Dell Technologies founder Michael Dell.In addition, Volta has also secured a $5 billion customer financing pool to help small and medium-sized AI companies lower the threshold for purchasing Nvidia's high-end chips.The company simultaneously disclosed that it has signed a $10 billion, six-year cloud computing services contract with an unnamed leading AI developer, which will collaborate with Bitdeer to deliver services based on its 133-megawatt data center located in Norway.Volta was co-founded earlier this year by former Brookfield Asset Management infrastructure executive Ricard Boada and Sofia Gumuzio, and has currently secured 1 gigawatt of data center power resources, with plans to develop new sites in Texas and Wyoming, aiming to deploy multi-gigawatt computing capacity before 2030.

Wu Jihan stated on platform X that the current solar energy issue in Europe is no longer just about increasing power generation, but rather the lack of sufficient flexible power demand to absorb excess energy. He cited the latest analysis from the energy research organization Pexapark, which indicates that the phenomenon of "self-cannibalization" in European photovoltaics is rapidly worsening.Wu Jihan pointed out that the speed of solar deployment in Europe has outpaced the construction of grid system flexibility. In addition to energy storage, grid expansion, and demand response, Europe should also pay attention to interruptible loads, including Bitcoin mining and other computational loads. These types of loads can be activated when electricity is abundant and shut down when the grid is tight, thus becoming the "last buyer" of excess renewable energy, reducing curtailment, improving the profitability of photovoltaic projects, and enhancing the profitability and financing feasibility of investments in generation and grid infrastructure.

According to China News Weekly, the People's Court of Honggang District in Daqing City, Heilongjiang Province recently announced a first-instance judgment. Two men were sentenced for stealing electricity from high-voltage lines in an oil field for Bitcoin mining. The principal offender, Zhang, was sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined 50,000 yuan, while the accomplice, Zhao, was sentenced to 4 years and 10 months in prison and fined 20,000 yuan.According to the judgment, in September 2024, Zhang illegally connected to the high-voltage line of an oil field in Daqing and set up 24 Bitcoin mining machines in an abandoned pigsty he rented. In December of the same year, Zhao joined in knowing that Zhang was stealing electricity and purchased an additional 12 mining machines, bringing the total to 36 machines running. In August 2025, the two were arrested by the public security authorities.It was calculated that Zhang stole 565,375.2 kilowatt-hours of electricity, valued at 438,580.52 yuan; Zhao stole 468,060 kilowatt-hours, valued at 363,750.78 yuan. The court determined that both men committed theft, with Zhang as the principal offender and Zhao as the accomplice. The court also ordered Zhang to repay 438,580.52 yuan, and Zhao to bear joint repayment responsibility for 363,750.78 yuan. The mining machines and related equipment involved in the case will be handled by the public security authorities in accordance with the law.

According to Forbes, AI startup Lightning AI has merged with computing power provider Voltage Park to create a "full-stack AI cloud." The merged company will be named Lightning AI, with a valuation of over $2.5 billion and annual recurring revenue exceeding $500 million.Lightning AI is the developer of the open-source tool PyTorch Lightning, while Voltage Park was established with a $900 million grant from the Navigation Fund, a nonprofit organization founded by Ripple co-founder and Mt. Gox co-founder Jed McCaleb, managing over 35,000 Nvidia GPUs. After the merger, Jed McCaleb's Navigation Fund will hold a significant stake in the new company.

ChainCatcher news, according to Sina Finance, Ant Group's financial technology arm has collaborated with green energy service provider GCL-Poly to complete RWA (Real World Assets) based on photovoltaic physical assets, involving an amount exceeding 200 million RMB.It is reported that this is the first domestic photovoltaic physical asset RWA. A relevant person in charge of Ant Group stated that blockchain and smart contract technology can enhance the transparency of asset operation, management, disposal, and trading, improve asset trading efficiency, and reduce transaction costs.

ChainCatcher news, the multi-signature non-custodial platform Volta has raised $4.1 million in seed funding, with investors including Fika Ventures, Haven Ventures, Soma Capital, Dispersion Capital, and Uphonest Capital.

ChainCatcher message, Volta Club has now added support for OKX Web3 Wallet. Users can conduct cross-chain transactions, exchanges, and earn yields on their assets through the OKX Web3 Wallet plugin in Volta Club. Volta Club is a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) dedicated to supporting emerging projects through investment and promoting Web3.It is reported that the OKX Web3 Wallet is a leading one-stop Web3 entry point, now supporting 80 public chains, with a unified experience across App, plugin, and web. It covers five major areas: wallet, DEX, DeFi, NFT marketplace, and DApp exploration, and supports Ordinals marketplace, MPC and AA smart contract wallets, gas exchange, and hardware wallet connections.

ChainCatcher news, Google Cloud has partnered with Lightning as a Service (LaaS) provider Voltage to expand managed service offerings, allowing customers to create Bitcoin and Lightning nodes on Google Cloud.It is reported that Voltage provides Lightning Network solutions for enterprises to achieve real-time payment settlement with near-zero fees. (Source link)

ChainCatcher news, cryptocurrency mining machine manufacturer Bitmain has launched a new generation of mining machine, the ANTMINER S19j Pro+. Bitmain stated that the S19j Pro+ has a hash rate of up to 122T, a power consumption of 3355W, and an energy efficiency ratio of 27.5J/T, with an overall performance improvement of 10% compared to the S19j Pro. The new power supply has an input voltage range of 220~277V, making it compatible with most mining farms worldwide. (Source link)