Empery Digital has committed $20 million to Cardinal Data Power, purchasing an approximately 8% stake in the private developer behind “powered” data center campuses designed for AI and high-performance computing workloads. The capital injection is tied to Cardinal Data Power’s Series A round of roughly $70 million and is intended to help advance a 750-megawatt campus project in West Texas.
While the investment highlights growing demand for large-scale compute infrastructure, it also lands in the middle of Empery’s own strategic shift away from its earlier Bitcoin treasury approach. Over the past two months, the company sold about 1,400 BTC for approximately $87.1 million, leaving it with 1,514 BTC after the transactions.
Key takeaways
- Empery Digital invested $20 million for an ~8% stake in Cardinal Data Power as part of a Series A of about $70 million.
- Cardinal’s West Texas powered data center campus is expected to begin delivering power in 2027, expand to around 1 GW by 2029, and ultimately exceed 5 GW.
- Empery’s Cardinal investment follows a reduction in its Bitcoin holdings, after it sold roughly 1,400 BTC over two months.
- Across the broader market, Bitcoin treasury firms are splitting between continued accumulation and exits or restructurings.
- Investors are watching whether corporate Bitcoin strategies increasingly prioritize operational assets—such as AI infrastructure—over pure balance-sheet accumulation.
Empery backs AI-focused “powered” campus development
Cardinal Data Power builds data center sites that integrate power generation, natural gas supply, and electrical infrastructure into a single development model. According to Empery Digital, the goal is to accelerate the delivery of large-scale computing campuses for artificial intelligence and HPC customers.
The company’s current plan centers on a West Texas campus with an initial scale of 750 MW. Cardinal expects first power in 2027, then scaling to about 1 gigawatt by 2029. The longer-term target is to exceed 5 gigawatts, implying a phased buildout designed to support expanding demand as AI workloads and compute capacity requirements grow.
For investors and data center developers, the appeal of “powered” campus design is that it aims to reduce bottlenecks often associated with securing power capacity and the infrastructure required to deliver electricity at the scale large AI deployments demand. Empery’s decision to place capital into this model suggests it sees AI infrastructure as a near-to-medium term driver of value creation rather than relying solely on financial asset appreciation.
Bitcoin treasury strategy under pressure at Empery
Empery’s investment decision comes during an ongoing adjustment to its treasury posture. Earlier this year, the company moved away from an electric powersports business and adopted a Bitcoin treasury strategy in mid-2025, positioning Bitcoin holdings as a key part of its balance sheet.
However, the company recently reported that it sold about 1,400 BTC over a two-month period for approximately $87.1 million. Empery said it intends to use those proceeds to fund AI infrastructure investments and repay debt.
After the sales, Empery’s Bitcoin holdings dropped to 1,514 BTC. BitcoinTreasuries.NET data indicates Empery previously held as many as 4,081 BTC before beginning to trim its position in March.
The reduction appears to have taken place amid shareholder activism: the filings and coverage referenced in the source say that shareholder Tice P. Brown urged the company to abandon its Bitcoin treasury strategy and called for the resignation of the chief executive officer and the board. The pressure helps explain why Empery’s corporate narrative is shifting from a “hold Bitcoin” approach toward funding operational and infrastructure projects—at least in part using realized value from earlier BTC holdings.
Bitcoin treasury firms diverge: unwind, restructure, or persist
Beyond Empery, the broader Bitcoin treasury landscape continues to show a wide range of strategies and outcomes. Some companies remain committed to accumulation, while others are winding down positions, changing corporate direction, or revising how Bitcoin appears on their balance sheets.
Satsuma Technology is one of the clearest examples of an exit. According to the source, shareholders voted overwhelmingly on July 20 to sell the company’s Bitcoin holdings, return substantially all of its capital to investors, and delist from the London Stock Exchange. More than 90% of votes cast supported both the capital return and delisting.
Meanwhile, a different kind of change played out through attempted consolidation. The proposed merger between Tether-backed Twenty One Capital, Strike, and Bitcoin miner Elektron Energy was scrapped earlier this week. The source notes that Strike will remain a standalone company while discussions between Twenty One and Elektron continue. Even after the abandoned deal, Twenty One remains among the largest publicly tracked corporate Bitcoin holders with 43,514 BTC, ranking behind Strategy.
Taken together, these moves show that the corporate Bitcoin treasury model is not static. Some firms treat BTC accumulation as a long-term thesis; others appear to conclude that capital can be deployed more effectively elsewhere or that shareholder appetite is better aligned with liquidity and balance-sheet simplification.
A new playbook: Bitcoin alongside permanent-capital business ownership
Another strand of development comes from efforts to reframe Bitcoin’s role inside corporate structures. The source says Bitcoin analyst Lyn Alden co-founded Orange Juice HODLINGS, a permanent-capital holding company backed by Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas. It reportedly launched with $40 million in initial funding.
Rather than using Bitcoin strictly as an asset to accumulate and hold, the described plan is to acquire and retain profitable businesses indefinitely, while using Bitcoin as a treasury reserve asset. The strategy aims to combine long-term ownership of operating companies with a Bitcoin-backed balance sheet—an approach that differs from both pure accumulation and pure exit.
For readers trying to understand where the market may be headed, this is a meaningful shift in framing. It suggests corporate actors may increasingly treat Bitcoin as one component of a diversified capital stack, rather than the sole centerpiece of a treasury thesis—particularly as institutional narratives around AI infrastructure, compute scaling, and power availability gain traction.
What to watch next
With Empery using realized Bitcoin proceeds to fund AI infrastructure and with Cardinal’s campus ramp targeting multi-year power delivery milestones, investors should watch for how quickly capital commitments translate into construction progress, power milestones, and incremental financial disclosures. At the same time, the broader split in corporate treasury outcomes—unwind versus restructure versus hybrid models—will likely shape how future corporate Bitcoin strategies evolve under shareholder pressure and shifting capital allocation priorities.
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