Soluna (SLNH) H.C. Wainwright 28th Annual Global Investment Conference summary

Market overview and industry transformation

• Hyperscalers are projected to spend over $1 trillion on AI in the coming year, with Bitcoin miners securing $160 billion in AI colocation deals and access to over 14 GW of power capacity.

• Bitcoin miners are rapidly transitioning to AI data center development, leveraging their existing land and power assets to address the critical shortage of scalable power for AI HPC.

• The economics of AI data centers differ significantly from Bitcoin mining, with costs per megawatt rising from $4.5 million to $13 million due to labor and equipment constraints.

• Labor shortages and supply chain issues, especially for electricians and critical equipment, are major bottlenecks in scaling AI infrastructure.

• Companies are optimizing their portfolios by targeting both large-scale and smaller inference sites to meet diverse client needs.

Business models and strategic approaches

• Firms are pursuing both colocation and AI cloud services, often spinning out pure-play AI infrastructure businesses to attract institutional investors and secure financing.

• Acquisitions of specialized teams and companies with retrofit expertise are enabling rapid transformation of legacy facilities into AI campuses.

• Some companies prefer colocation for large sites while developing GPU-as-a-service or neocloud offerings at smaller sites to maintain flexibility and optionality.

• Strategic partnerships and acquisitions, such as majority control of Exaion, are enhancing capabilities in mission-critical data center operations and expanding geographic reach.

• Companies are leveraging their power and land assets as equity contributions in joint ventures, increasing cash-on-cash returns and enabling parallel project development.

Recent deals, contracts, and pipeline

• Multi-billion dollar, long-term leases have been secured, such as a $6.6 billion, 20-year triple net lease in Georgia, with additional exclusivity on 885 MW in Texas.

• Recent deals include a 500 MW contract with AMD and an agreement for up to 2,000 MW at three sites, reflecting strong demand from hyperscalers and neoclouds.

• Cloud service deals totaling $500 million have been announced, with successful retrofits of facilities for clients like Cerebras and Nscale.

• New AI campuses are being developed at renewable energy sites, with projects like Kati 2 (350 MW) and Dorothy 3 (300 MW) leveraging clustering of multiple power sources.

• Customer prepayments and innovative financing structures are enabling rapid scaling, with revenue from new sites expected to double or more in the coming year.