Rumble to Acquire Northern Data in $767M Bid for AI Cloud Market
All-stock deal aims to arm video platform with 22,400 NVIDIA GPUs, but is shadowed by an ongoing criminal probe into Northern Data's finances.
LONGBOAT KEY, Fla. – Rumble Inc. is making a decisive pivot from a video-sharing platform into a contender in the booming artificial intelligence infrastructure market, announcing a definitive agreement to acquire German cloud-computing firm Northern Data AG in an all-stock deal valued at approximately $767 million.
The acquisition, announced Monday, is a strategic gambit to transform Rumble’s nascent cloud services division into a significant force in the high-demand market for GPU-as-a-Service. Through the deal, Rumble will gain control of a formidable arsenal of computing power, including approximately 22,400 high-performance NVIDIA GPUs and data centers with nearly 850 megawatts of potential capacity.
Investors reacted positively to the strategic shift, with Rumble (NASDAQ: RUM) shares climbing in pre-market trading. The move aims to position the company to compete with established cloud giants by carving out a niche as a "freedom-first" alternative for AI development and data processing.
"This transaction will transform Rumble into a global AI cloud leader," said Rumble CEO Chris Pavlovski in a statement. He emphasized a shared vision for "democratizing compute" by leveraging the combined company's assets to offer data privacy and independence on a global scale.
The deal's structure will see Northern Data shareholders receive 2.0281 Rumble Class A common shares for each Northern Data share. The transaction has the backing of Tether, the issuer of the world's largest stablecoin, which holds a majority stake in Northern Data and is a significant investor in Rumble.
In a powerful endorsement of the deal, Tether has committed to purchasing up to $150 million in GPU services from the combined entity. Concurrent with the acquisition news, Rumble also announced a separate $100 million advertising commitment from Tether, further cementing the strategic alliance.
This acquisition represents a dramatic expansion of Rumble's ambitions. Originally known for its video platform popular with conservative audiences, the company launched Rumble Cloud in 2023. By absorbing Northern Data’s assets, including its nearly 20,500 NVIDIA H100 and 2,000 H200 Tensor Core GPUs, Rumble aims to bypass the years-long process of building such infrastructure from the ground up.
However, the ambitious move is not without significant risks. The acquisition is shadowed by an ongoing criminal investigation into Northern Data by European prosecutors. According to reports from seekingalpha.com, authorities are investigating allegations of large-scale value-added tax (VAT) fraud, focusing on whether the company improperly claimed tax incentives by misrepresenting GPU purchases intended for cryptocurrency mining as being for AI workloads.
Raids were conducted at Northern Data offices in Germany and Sweden in September, leading to several arrests. While Northern Data has stated it is cooperating with investigators and believes there has been a misunderstanding of its tax compliance, the probe has reportedly clouded the deal and contributed to a scaled-back valuation from initial discussions earlier this year.
Despite the legal overhang, Rumble is pushing forward, betting that control over a vast fleet of high-powered chips—a scarce and critical resource in the AI economy—will give it a decisive competitive edge. The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2026, pending shareholder and regulatory approvals. The move will test whether Rumble can successfully integrate a complex international operation and navigate a high-stakes legal battle while trying to challenge some of the biggest names in technology.