Cryptomining turned AI infrastructure provider Northern Data is reportedly considering taking its data center and cloud business units to the public markets in the US in a move that could raise up to $16 billion.

The company is said to be mulling an initial public offering (IPO) for Taiga, its cloud division, and Ardent, its data center business.

The IPO could take place on the Nasdaq market according to a report in Bloomberg, which said the business is targeting a $10-$16 billion valuation.

Frankfurt-based Northern Data is currently listed as a combined entity in Germany. It could sell a minority stake in Ardent and Taiga prior to the IPO, according to the Bloomberg report, which cites people familiar with the company’s thinking.

Northern Data declined to comment when approached by Bloomberg.

Northern Data Group was founded as Northern Bitcoin AG in Germany in 2009. In 2019, it merged with Whinstone US, with the latter company’s CEO Aroosh Thillainathan taking over the running of the combined firm. In 2020, it was renamed as Northern Data Group and shifted its focus to HPC, selling the Whinstone business to another cryptomining provider, Riot.

Last year it separated its business into three divisions - Arden, Taiga, and Peak Mining, which contains all its cryptomining operations. According to its website, it operates 11 data centers.

Like many cryptomining businesses, Northern Data sees high-performance computing and AI as a money-spinning addition to its core activities, particularly as cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin face growing scrutiny over their carbon footprint.

This week the company announced it has purchased 2,000 of Nvidia’s H200 GPUs, which will be housed in one of its data centers in Europe and be offered to customers of Taiga to help run their workloads.

Northern Data claims it is the first European cloud provider to offer H200s to its clients, and said the cluster will come online in the fourth quarter of the year.

CEO Thillainathan said: “This is testament to our commitment to continually offer industry-leading, next-generation solutions. As an elite partner of Nvidia, we are proud to continue to offer cutting-edge technology, deployed in line with recommended architecture references to maximize the technology.”