Ionic raises $400M as AI leasing tops bitcoin

Ionic Digital filed an S-1 to list directly on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker IOND and completed a $400 million private placement on June 26. The company reported first-quarter 2026 revenue of $51.4 million, with $44.0 million from digital infrastructure leasing and $7.4 million from bitcoin mining.

The filing documents a long-term lease for Ionic’s Ward County, Texas site. In October 2025 Ionic entered a 126-month triple-net lease with Nscale for the full 234 megawatts of installed power at Ward County, representing roughly $1.95 billion of contracted revenue. In February 2026 the lease was amended to add a contractual option for an additional 89 MW at the same per-megawatt price. If Ionic secures and delivers that capacity, contracted revenue under the Nscale agreement could increase to about $2.6 billion. The filing notes the added capacity requires regulatory approval and that Nscale faces no penalty if Ionic cannot provide it. Nscale holds a right of first refusal on further Ward County capacity and Microsoft has an option for additional power starting in the second half of 2027.

Ionic received its first lease payment in November 2025 and fixed monthly lease payments are scheduled to begin in August 2026. The S-1 shows digital infrastructure leasing produced the majority of Q1 2026 revenue, reversing a year-earlier mix that was entirely mining-driven. Net loss narrowed to $13.0 million in the quarter from $28.0 million a year earlier.

Ahead of the listing, Ionic sold about 7.55 million shares of Series A convertible preferred stock at $53 per share and issued three tranches of warrants to acquire roughly 1.01 million Class A shares each, with exercise prices of $63.60, $74.20 and $87.45. The preferred shares convert into Class A common stock upon a Nasdaq listing or another qualifying public-market transaction. Investors agreed not to transfer the preferred stock, converted Class A shares, the warrants or warrant shares at prices below $70 per share for six months after listing, subject to limited exceptions. The filing registers the resale of up to 10.8 million shares held by selling stockholders; Ionic will not receive proceeds from those sales. About 37.2 million additional Class A shares may be sold in the public market under securities-law exemptions tied to the company’s formation.

Ionic has reduced its active bitcoin mining operations. As of March 31 the company owned about 120,600 miners with a nameplate hashrate of 12.2 EH/s but only roughly 23,200 machines were active, contributing about 2.0 EH/s. A year earlier roughly 116,500 miners were active, generating 8.9 EH/s. Ionic mined 95.7 bitcoin in Q1 2026 and sold none during the quarter; in 2025 the company mined 1,331 bitcoin and sold 1,009 at an average price of $100,547, producing about $101.5 million in gross proceeds.

The company is consolidating remaining mining operations around four Midland-area sites in Texas — East Stiles, Garden City, Rebel and Stiles — which together represent 112 MW of current power capacity across about 59.5 acres, with another 10 MW expected at East Stiles in 2027. Ionic plans to market those parcels for high-performance computing and AI development and has not set a timetable to exit bitcoin mining.

Balance-sheet items reported as of March 31 include $34.9 million of cash and cash equivalents, $192.1 million of cryptocurrency assets and $554.0 million of total assets, with total liabilities of $17.2 million and no debt. The company held 2,815.6 bitcoin in treasury at quarter end. The S-1 outlines expected capital spending of about $40 million through the first half of 2027 to support the current 234 MW plus the potential additional 89 MW, and about $64 million for a buildout to as much as 700 MW at Ward County, to be funded with cash on hand and, if needed, sales of bitcoin held in treasury.

Ionic was formed in January 2024 to acquire mining assets from the reorganized operations of Celsius Mining and began operations on Feb. 1, 2024. The company terminated a services agreement with an outsourcer in December 2024 and took operational control of its sites. The S-1 frames Ionic as a developer and lessor of power, land and data-center capacity for AI and high-performance computing customers as it prepares to list on Nasdaq.