Merkle Standard in Venture With Bitmain to Develop Data Centers

California-based bitcoin miner Merkle Standard announced a joint venture deal with Bitmain, one of the world’s largest bitcoin mining rig manufacturers, to develop data centers with up to 500 megawatts (MW) of capacity.

Bitmain will provide the funding and technical support to develop the data centers, which will house Bitmain’s mining equipment. Merkle will be the majority owner of the joint venture, managing both the data center development process as well as the operations, once completed.

The first phase of the development has already begun at Merkle’s Eastern Washington 225 MW facility. It’s expected to be completed in the second quarter. Merkle will be putting to work a variety of Bitmain’s S19J Pro, S19 XP and S19+ Hydro mining equipment at the site.

The S19 Pro+ Hydro – Bitmain’s newest mining rig – uses liquid cooling technology. CoinDesk reported on Feb. 4 that Merkle Standard would be one of the first crypto miners in the U.S. to get that piece of equipment as it works to reach a capacity of 4.6 exahashes per second (EH/s) in computing power and achieve negative net carbon emissions by year end.