A.SREENIVASA REDDY (ABU DHABI)

Phoenix Group, which was once primarily a crypto-mining firm, has set its sights on transforming itself into an AI infrastructure company. As part of this strategy, it has announced a partnership with French company DC Max to launch an 18MW data centre in the French city of Lyon.

A company statement said Phoenix has already acquired the land for the Lyon site, with permits secured and grid and power connections already in place. Construction is expected to begin in July 2026, with delivery targeted between the fourth quarter of 2027 and the first quarter of 2028.

The project marks the first deployment under Phoenix’s European Data Center Platform, which the company described as a scalable framework targeting more than 1GW of combined AI and high-performance computing (HPC) capacity across Europe and the GCC.

Phoenix said the partnership with DC Max, a French data centre developer with a 1GW pipeline, would provide preferential access to future development opportunities in Europe.

Speaking to Aletihad, Munaf Ali, Co-Founder and Group CEO of Phoenix Group, said the company did not view the move into AI and HPC infrastructure as a complete departure from its crypto-mining roots, but rather as a natural evolution of capabilities it had already developed over the years.

“We do not see this as a complete reinvention of the business, but rather an evolution of the capabilities Phoenix has already been building for years,” Ali said.

“At its core, Bitcoin mining is fundamentally an infrastructure business centered around power procurement, large-scale compute deployment, cooling, operational efficiency, and the ability to energize infrastructure quickly and competitively,” he said, adding that the same capabilities were increasingly becoming critical in AI and HPC infrastructure markets globally.

According to Ali, Phoenix gradually recognised that the long-term opportunity extended “beyond digital assets alone and toward broader compute infrastructure demand”, with the acceleration of global AI adoption reinforcing that strategy.

“The launch of our European AI infrastructure platform with DC Max represents the first major public step in that direction, and we see this as the beginning of a much broader long-term infrastructure strategy for Phoenix,” he said.

The company added that the move reflects its ambition to become a global digital infrastructure operator focused on AI and HPC capacity, building on expertise originally developed in the crypto-mining sector.

Phoenix currently operates more than 550MW of deployed capacity across the UAE, Oman, North America, East Africa and Europe.

Asked whether the 550MW figure referred to operational assets or project pipeline, Ali said it represented a combination of “live operational infrastructure, energised sites, and capacity under active development and deployment” across the company’s global markets.

Ali described the latest announcement as “a genuine inflection point” for the company and for “what an Emirati company can achieve on the global stage.”

“We are establishing a presence at the heart of European AI infrastructure, bringing the conviction and capital to build something that will compound in value for years to come,” he said.

“The 1GW ambition is not a ceiling; it is a starting point,” he added, saying the initiative aligns with the UAE’s broader AI ambitions.

The company stressed that the pivot towards AI infrastructure did not mean it was abandoning crypto mining altogether.

“Our core strategic focus is now firmly on AI data centre infrastructure, and that will only intensify over the coming months and years,” Ali said.

At the same time, he said Bitcoin mining would continue as a separate vertical within Phoenix’s broader business platform.

“Where mining and data centre operations complement each other naturally, we will continue to operate intelligently,” he said. “There is a genuine operational synergy between the two: both draw on the same grid infrastructure, and mining can play a useful role in grid stabilisation alongside data centre loads.”

“Bitcoin mining will continue as a vertical within Phoenix's broader platform, but the trajectory of our business is clear. AI and HPC infrastructure are where our capital, our ambition, and our future growth are pointed,” Ali added.

The company said demand for AI computing capacity in Europe is outpacing supply, with enterprises and hyperscalers reserving capacity years in advance. It identified Lyon as an attractive location because of its industrial base, electrical infrastructure and lower land costs compared with Paris.

According to the statement, the partnership is designed as a repeatable development platform rather than a single project. DC Max contributes expertise in site origination, permitting and grid access, while Phoenix provides capital and operational scale.

Ali said both parties were investing capital into the platform as part of a “genuine partnership with shared financial commitment on both sides.”

Importantly, he noted that the Lyon site was not speculative, with land already secured along with permits, grid connection and available power — factors he described as “genuinely rare in the current European market.”

The companies said the wider development pipeline exceeds 1GW and is valued at an estimated $8 billion.

Romain Fremont, CEO of DC Max, said the partnership would allow the companies to move “at a pace and scale that would not have been possible independently.”

“The demand is there. The sites are there. What this partnership adds is the ability to deliver,” Fremont said.

Phoenix was founded in 2017 and built its initial business around Bitcoin mining before expanding into broader digital infrastructure and AI-focused computing operations. It is a listed company on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange with the approximate market cap of Dh5.4 billion.