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Rumble to Acquire Germany’s Northern Data in $767 Million AI Cloud Deal

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Rumble, the U.S.-based video platform that also hosts Donald Trump’s Truth Social, announced on Monday that it will acquire German AI cloud company Northern Data in an all-stock deal worth about $767 million, sending Rumble’s shares up more than 25% in premarket trading.

Under the terms of the agreement, Northern Data shareholders will receive 2.0281 newly issued Rumble Class A shares for each share held, representing a 12.99% discount to Northern Data’s last closing price. The acquisition gives Rumble access to Northern Data’s AI computing arm, Taiga, and its large-scale data center unit, Ardent.

The deal also includes a $150 million GPU-leasing agreement with Tether, the cryptocurrency firm that owns roughly 48% of Rumble, as well as $200 million in tax liability support from Rumble. Upon completion, Rumble will gain control of 22,400 Nvidia GPUs, significantly boosting its AI computing capacity.

Tether, which invested $775 million in Rumble in December 2024, has agreed to become an anchor customer of the combined group, supporting long-term AI infrastructure demand.

Following the merger, Northern Data shareholders will hold 30.4% of the new company, which will operate under Rumble’s name. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of 2026, after which Northern Data will delist from the stock market.

Northern Data had withdrawn its 2025 forecast in October amid volatility in the GPU market, but the merger positions both companies to capitalize on rising global demand for AI data centers.

Southeast Asia’s Digital Economy Sees Slower Private Funding Growth Despite AI Boom

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Private funding for Southeast Asia’s digital economy rose 15% year-on-year to $7.7 billion in the 12 months to June 2025, lagging the global private investment growth rate of 25%, according to a new report by Google, Temasek Holdings, and Bain & Company.

While the figure marks an improvement from 2024, it remains about 70% below the region’s 2021 record high of $27 billion, reflecting a slower recovery from the post-pandemic investment cooldown.

The report found that funding is increasingly concentrated in late-stage rounds, with the share of seed-to-Series B deals dropping from around 30% to 20% over the past year.

This year’s edition expanded its coverage to include Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar, alongside Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines — a region of nearly 700 million people and one of the world’s fastest-growing internet markets, driven by a young population and rising smartphone use.

Despite the funding slowdown, AI startups remain a bright spot, attracting 32% of all private capital in the region during the first half of 2025 — up slightly from 30% in the second half of 2024. Over 680 AI startups secured more than $2.3 billion, with Singapore hosting more than 495 of them.

The report also highlighted rapid data center expansion, as countries rush to build infrastructure for the AI boom. Data center capacity in Southeast Asia is expected to grow 2.8 times, surpassing the 2.2 times growth forecast for the wider Asia-Pacific.

Malaysia leads this expansion, with 2,415 MW of new capacity planned — more than half the region’s total 4,620 MW — attracting major investments from Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Tencent, Huawei, and Alibaba.

Meanwhile, TikTok plans to invest $4 billion in data hosting facilities in Thailand, while Google and Amazon are each investing $1 billion and $5 billion respectively in the country, underscoring the growing competition in Southeast Asia’s digital infrastructure landscape.

CoreWeave Cuts Revenue Forecast After Data Center Delay, Shares Drop

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CoreWeave (CRWV.O), a cloud infrastructure company backed by Nvidia, trimmed its annual revenue forecast on Monday after delays at a third-party data center partner disrupted operations, overshadowing strong quarterly results driven by soaring demand for AI computing services.

Shares fell more than 6% in extended trading, after Chief Financial Officer Nitin Agrawal forecast 2025 revenue between $5.05 billion and $5.15 billion, down from a previous estimate of $5.15 billion to $5.35 billion. Analysts had expected around $5.29 billion, according to data from LSEG.

CoreWeave said the customer impacted by the delay agreed to extend the contract’s expiration date, ensuring the total deal value remains intact, though the company did not name the client.

Despite the setback, the company posted a strong September quarter, with revenue more than doubling to $1.36 billion, beating Wall Street expectations of $1.29 billion.

CoreWeave has emerged as a major infrastructure provider for AI-driven workloads, securing high-profile contracts such as a $14 billion deal with Meta Platforms and a $6.5 billion partnership with OpenAI, both of which rely on its vast GPU-powered cloud network.

Once focused on Ethereum mining, CoreWeave has successfully repurposed its powerful GPU infrastructure to fuel the global AI cloud boom. However, its rapid growth has also exposed challenges — including rising chip prices, competition for computing capacity, and high expansion costs.

The company now expects to more than double capital spending next year, investing between $12 billion and $14 billion to meet surging demand.

CoreWeave shares have more than doubled since going public earlier this year at $40 per share, giving the firm a market capitalization above $50 billion, though its operating margin slipped to 16% in Q3 from 21% a year earlier.