Hut 8 Mining Corp. (NASDAQ:HUT) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Chris Brendler: Okay. I’m going to squeeze in one more, if you don’t mind. HPC revenue came in almost exactly where I noted, so solid progress there. But with all the hype around AI in the fourth quarter, and I’ve heard other companies indicate that HPC demand is still rising rapidly. Can you give us any color on what you expect in terms of how that business is going to look this year?

Jaime Leverton: I can’t give you any forward looking guidance. But what I can say is, we are very pleased that we did that acquisition. It’s been just over a year since we diversified into that area and then ultimately we’re able to not just integrate the business, but spent a significant amount of time focusing on upgrading that business. So I think we’ve timed the market incredibly well and we continue to be bullish on the space and really thrilled that we’re a bit ahead of the curve on that diversification strategy.

Chris Brendler: Awesome. Thanks so much.

Jaime Leverton: No problem. Thank you.

Operator: Your next question comes from George Sutton with Craig Hallum. Please go ahead.

Jaime Leverton: Good morning, George.

George Sutton: Good morning, Jaime. So also on HPC, just asking the question a different way, can you talk about the key use cases that you currently have relative to the HPC segment?

Jaime Leverton: So, as I think, when we purchased that business, we purchased it with an existing fleet of enterprise customers. So we’ve got just under 400 enterprise customers across the five data centers, and they’re consuming a mix of products from us, which includes co-location, cloud and managed services. And those customers are from very diverse industries. I think really all major industries are represented in our current customer base. And when we kind of look forward and think about the demand profile that we’re seeing really increased from, we’re definitely seeing more inbound demand from artificial intelligence. Gaming continues to be strong. Machine learning is another area that’s got traction. But I would say the leading use case right now from a demand perspective that we’re seeing in an inbound capacity is coming from AI projects.

George Sutton: So Shenif, I wonder if you could address the Drumheller question this way. Your overall cost was $20,100, I’ll use $15,000 as an equivalent U.S. dollar amount per Bitcoin. Natural gas prices are down 50% year-to-date. So my assumption would be that you should be seeing those fall and I’m getting to the curtailment question in terms of trying to understand when you ostensibly would curtail, is it simply at the production cost number or there additional considerations relative to that?

Shenif Visram: Yes. So, first of all, I’m just going to highlight in Drumheller specifically. We are investigating some electrical issues at our Drumheller site, which have reduced our overall production there. We’re in the early stages of exploring supplementary options to mitigate the challenges and hope we have more definitive plan ready in due course. So it’s a bit more complicated in Drumheller and that you’re right, that we’re seeing energy prices drop, but we are seeing an impact on production right now due these electrical issues. So a bit more going into play into the first quarter as we look into these issues that we’re having in that site specifically, it’s a bit more complicated than just energy price reduction.

George Sutton: I assume that was the case. And then finally, is there any update you can give us on the closing process in terms of things that you are awaiting in terms of stipulations or anything that we need to be aware of and any sense of the timing of the close?

Jaime Leverton: Great question. So I’ll take that. The closing of the proposed merger of equals with USBTC continues to be a top priority as we’ve discussed, and we’re happy to share that we have received a no action letter from the Competition Bureau of Canada in respect of the proposed merger. The letter confirms that the Competition Bureau does not at this time intend to challenge the proposed transaction under the merger provisions in the Competition Act. This is a very positive development as we continue to work to obtain all necessary regulatory, shareholder, exchange and other approvals required to close the transaction. So that’s as much of an update as I’ve got for you today.

George Sutton: It was impressive off the top of your head. Thank you very much.

Jaime Leverton: You know me, I’m always prepared.

Operator: Your next question comes from Bill Papanastasiou from Stifel. Please go ahead.