HIVE has signed a $220 million artificial intelligence infrastructure contract with Bell and Cohere. The deal is expected to pump roughly $70 million in annual recurring revenue into the company's books.
What the contract covers
The three-way agreement brings together HIVE, a firm that builds and operates specialized computing systems, with telecommunications provider Bell and AI research lab Cohere. Under the terms, HIVE will supply the hardware and managed services needed to train and run large-scale AI models. The contract runs for multiple years, though the exact duration wasn't disclosed.
Bell and Cohere will use the infrastructure for internal AI projects and customer-facing products. For Cohere, which competes in the crowded large language model space, access to dedicated compute capacity is a key advantage. For Bell, the deal means it can offer AI services without building its own data center from scratch.
The revenue impact
HIVE expects the contract to add about $70 million in annual recurring revenue. That's a significant boost for the company, which reported total revenue of $108 million in its most recent fiscal year. The $220 million total contract value includes both upfront equipment sales and ongoing service fees.
The company didn't say when the revenue would start flowing. But a contract of this size typically begins contributing within one to two quarters after signing.
Why this deal matters for HIVE
HIVE has been positioning itself as a go-to provider for AI compute, a market that's growing fast as more companies race to deploy generative AI. The Bell-Cohere contract is by far the largest single deal the company has announced. It validates HIVE's strategy of building custom clusters rather than renting out generic cloud capacity.
The company's stock rose on the news. Investors saw the deal as proof that HIVE can win big enterprise customers against larger rivals like Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. HIVE also said the contract strengthens its backlog and gives it better visibility into future earnings.
HIVE now has to deliver. The company will need to procure the necessary GPUs, networking gear, and cooling systems, then install and manage the infrastructure for Bell and Cohere. Any delays in hardware supply chains could push back the start of revenue.
The contract also ties HIVE's fortunes to the success of Cohere's models. If Cohere fails to gain traction, Bell might scale back. But for now, the deal gives HIVE a solid base to build on.
