Buzz HPC CEO Craig Tavares talked with Proactive about the company’s strategic launch of a purpose-built AI cloud in Paraguay. The initiative marks Buzz HPC’s third global cloud region, joining existing operations in Sweden and Canada.
Tavares explained that the decision to expand into Paraguay was driven by its compelling position as an emerging hub for next-generation high-performance computing (HPC) data centres.
Buzz HPC, a subsidiary of HIVE Digital Technologies (TSX-V:HIVE, NASDAQ:HIVE, FRA:YO0, BVC:HIVECO), is leveraging its existing Tier 1 infrastructure in Paraguay, originally developed for crypto mining, to transition into AI-focused, Tier 3+ data centre facilities.
Tavares noted that Paraguay’s access to hydroelectric power, particularly from the largest dam in the Western Hemisphere, gives the company a renewable energy advantage.
Proactive: All right. Welcome back inside our Proactive newsroom. And joining me now is Craig Tavares. He is the CEO of Hive Digital Technologies subsidiary Buzz HPC. So Craig, great to see you again. How are you?
Craig Tavares: I'm great. Nice to see you.
Yeah. So the company made a big announcement about getting this high performance computing into Paraguay. And obviously the company has a big footprint in Paraguay already. So why don't you sort of take us back to the beginning and talk us through the reasoning behind the decision?
Absolutely. So, first of all, Buzz is a data center and GPU cloud provider. We own and operate data centers across Sweden and Canada. The entry into Paraguay was based on us building Tier 1 infrastructure through Hive Digital for the purpose of crypto mining. Establishing the power infrastructure and Tier 1 data centers was critical for the bitcoin mining business, which opens up a stepping stone to get into clouds and Tier 3 data centers for AI these days.
Buzz is really focused on building out that AI infrastructure for the new demanding workloads we’re seeing in the market. The Paraguay region is essentially designed to deliver one of the first purpose-built AI clouds in the region, optimized specifically for modern AI workloads. Paraguay was a target market for us because it's emerging as a compelling destination for next generation HPC data center development.
That’s really due to a unique combination of advantages — access to high quality renewable energy. We're connected to the largest dam in the Western Hemisphere. Because of that, we're able to reduce the carbon footprint of AI training and inference while improving long-term power cost predictability. That gives us power headroom for large-scale growth with a clear pathway to utility-scale expansion.
Craig, talk to me a bit about HIVE’s existing relationship in Paraguay. How much easier did it make this move, and how helpful are those contacts in the setup?
Yes, for sure. There’s a strategic partnership with a telecom provider, which gives us an accelerated path to market. We're leveraging enterprise-grade data center capacity that exists today, a national fiber connectivity backbone, and proven carrier operations. This entity has been operating for a long time and is one of the biggest operators in the market.
We’re able to enable low latency access, strong uptime, and rapid scaling for customers across Paraguay. We have deep government relationships that have been developed over time. One of the larger loads in Paraguay has helped us support and collaborate with local communities — local providers, government, and now Buzz is creating an engine to help grow and develop AI, whether through institutions and universities or enterprises and businesses.
Craig, talk to me a little bit about the natural resources available in Paraguay. Obviously, you need to power all of this. Hive has done well securing renewable, green power. Will that be used for the data center too?
Yes. That is our primary power source. Across all our assets in Europe, North America, and now South America, we’ve made deliberate efforts to secure hydroelectric energy as part of our green strategy. With Buzz, we’ll be launching green GPUs for AI training, inference, and tuning.
This is a purpose-built cloud that uses Nvidia chips to support new types of workloads. Behind it all is hydroelectric green energy — harnessing this amazing dam developed over many years between Brazil and Paraguay.
And lastly, I know the timeline is quite quick. Talk to me about the timing and how this is really just the beginning for Buzz in 2026.
Absolutely. This will be the third cloud region we’re launching globally. It complements our cloud regions in Sweden and Canada. With this launch, we’ll bring the Buzz AI cloud online in Q1 this year, making compute capacity available for AI-type workloads.
This also sets a precedent in the market for building capacity behind our data centers in the region today. With our Tier 1 facilities, we’ll look to redevelop those into Tier 3+ facilities that can host larger compute clusters over time.
Quotes have been lightly edited for clarity and style