Keel Infrastructure Swallows $145M Q1 Hit While Rewiring From Bitcoin Mining to AI Compute

Keel Infrastructure is paying a steep entry fee to join the AI compute race. The recently rebranded firm—formerly Bitfarms—posted a $145 million net loss in Q1 2026 as it pivots from Bitcoin mining to high-performance AI infrastructure. The headline looks harsh, yet the more telling datapoint is its balance sheet: $533 million of liquidity earmarked to turn power and land into leasing revenue.

The quarter underscored the transition’s friction. Revenue slipped 23% year over year to roughly $37 million, while operating loss expanded to $98 million versus $35 million a year earlier. Two non-operating items did real damage: a $41 million hit from mark-to-market changes in digital asset values and a $22 million loss linked to retiring a Macquarie credit facility. Layer on elevated corporate costs—general and administrative expense rose 52% to $27 million, largely for redomiciliation and the shift to U.S. GAAP—and you get a P&L designed for a different end state than Bitcoin mining.

The strategic reset is now structurally complete. On April 1, Keel became the ultimate parent of Bitfarms following a move from Canada to the U.S., capping a nearly two-year overhaul. It also exited Latin America via the sale of the Paso Pe site in Paraguay, trimming noncore exposure. What remains is an AI/HPC-first platform advancing three near-term development locations—Panther Creek and Sharon in Pennsylvania, and Moses Lake in Washington—each with zoning secured and land development plus environmental permitting underway. Management says its 2.2-gigawatt pipeline has established grid interconnections across high-demand U.S. and Québec power markets.

Here’s the crux: power access plus capital is the scarce combo in AI infrastructure. Keel reports about $336 million in unrestricted cash and $197 million in unencumbered Bitcoin as of May 8—resources it believes can carry the three priority sites through lease execution. That liquidity mix matters. Cash funds site work and long-lead equipment; Bitcoin offers optionality to monetize into capex on favorable market days without permanent equity dilution. The trade-off is earnings volatility under fair-value accounting, as seen this quarter.

Execution risk now concentrates in three areas: - Interconnection and permitting timelines. Interconnection queues can shift by months; any slip pushes revenue recognition. - Tenant conversion. Pre-leasing to AI/HPC customers at attractive power-adjusted rates is the difference between capital efficiency and stranded megawatts. - Supply chain. Transformers, switchgear, and high-density cooling remain gating items, even before GPUs arrive.

The pivot also resets the firm’s narrative with regulators and customers. Moving from proof-of-work mining to shared AI compute may reduce energy-perception frictions and broaden counterparties, yet it introduces new obligations around uptime, data handling, and sustainability reporting. Investors often reward operators that secure low-carbon megawatt-hours and credible pathways to machine-ready capacity; Keel’s U.S. redomiciliation and site selection look designed to meet that bar.

Market reaction hints that optionality is being recognized. Shares of Keel (KEEL) climbed over 9% Monday to $4.34 and are up more than 8% year to date. That bounce doesn’t absolve the near-term losses, but it suggests some investors are underwriting the shift from hashprice exposure to lease-driven, multi-year cash flows. If the company converts its pipeline to contracted, high-density capacity on time, the earnings profile could look very different from a miner’s cyclical swings.

This quarter’s numbers won’t win style points. They do, however, spotlight the one variable that tends to separate AI/HPC winners from watchers: control of power, land, and interconnections, backed by enough liquidity to endure timing risk. Keel has assembled that toolkit. Now it has to lease it.