Bitcoin miner opens three data centers in Anderson, Union counties

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GDA, one of the largest Bitcoin mining companies in the world, has recently opened three new data centers in the Upstate.

The announcement comes during a period of U.S. expansion of data centers for the company, which accounts for more than 2% of the total hash rate of the Bitcoin network, according to a company news release. Investopedia says hash rate is a measure of computational power on a blockchain network.

The first data center — located near Anderson — has been operational since February and has a total capacity of 18 megawatts. The other two facilities are located between the towns of Union and Lockhart and have been running since March 2023 with a total capacity of 15 megawatts.

The opening of these data centers is the company’s effort to fully integrate its operations in regional communities by working together with local suppliers and contractors, the news release stated. For example, the data center in Anderson was built using North American-built infrastructure equipment and reutilizing an abandoned textile warehouse. For the other two facilities, 95% of the people contracted to build the sites were hired locally in South Carolina.

The three centers created 150 jobs — 125 of which were local contractors that helped set up the facilities.

“I am extremely proud of the entire GDA team for opening these new facilities in only a few months,” Ankit Joshi, GDA head of North America, said in the release. “We were impressed to see how these local communities welcomed us so warmly as an opportunity for their economy.”

The company said the state’s supply of clean energy sources also influenced the decision to open the centers. The Pacolet data center is three miles from two hydroelectric generation plants by Lockhart Power — one of the region's biggest renewable and clean energy suppliers. The data center in Anderson is also utilizing Hitachi's environment-friendly dry type distribution transformers and will be a resource for Duke Energy to strengthen the local energy grid by returning excess power when needed.

“The opening of these new data centers is perfectly in line with our commitment to expand our fleet on clean energy resources,” GDA CEO Andrey Kim said in the release. “Our goal is to be industry leaders and show the world that Bitcoin mining can be very ESG-friendly.”

Since 2013, GDA has built more than 20 industrial-scale mining farms across North America, Europe and Central Asia. With a total power capacity of over 400 megawatts, the company has brought more than 300,000 miners online. GDA was recently included in the Fortune Crypto 40 list as the only Bitcoin miner.