Cango Eyes Strengthening of Bitcoin Mining Operations, Entry Into AI HPC Market

Chinese automotive transaction service platform Cango (CANG), which pivoted to bitcoin BTC$68,033.76 mining on year ago, plans to strengthen is footing in this area as well as entering the artificial intelligence (AI) high-performance computing (HPC) market.

Cango said it will prioritize optimizing its bitcoin mining business by improving uptime and improving the energy efficiency of its operations in a letter to shareholders on Thursday.

The company is also pursuing a targeted entry into AI HPC, the technology that powers complex AI tasks such as training large-language models (LLMs) and analyzing massive datasets.

As part of these goals, Cango said it will "continue to acquire and develop dual-purpose energy infrastructure, ensuring assets service immediate bitcoin mining needs while being architected to support future HPC deployments."

The firm's board has also approved a direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), which it expects to go live on Nov. 17.

Cango forayed into bitcoin mining last November, spending $400 million to acquire 50 exahash per second (EH/s) of power.

Since then, the company acquired a 50 MW mining facility in the state of Georgia for $19.5 million and has grown its bitcoin holdings to just over 6,400 BTC ($656 million).

CANG shares are priced at $3.55 as of Wednesday's close. This is an increase of over 27% compared to a year ago, but some 50% lower than the $5-$5.50 range in which it traded throughout much of the summer.