Aggressive African Expansion
The Abu Dhabi cryptocurrency mining company, Phoenix Group, recently announced the activation of a 30-megawatt (MW) hydropower-backed mining facility in Ethiopia. The project, a partnership with the state-owned Ethiopian Electric Power (EEP), is located at the Bole Lemi Industrial Park in Addis Ababa.
The 6,250-square-meter site is purpose-built to support advanced mining and future compute workloads. By leveraging stable, low-cost, and carbon-neutral hydropower from Ethiopia’s national grid, the facility adds 1.9 exahashes per second (EH/S) to Phoenix’s existing hashrate. This activation is seen as a key expansion milestone, moving Phoenix closer to its ambitious goal of scaling to 1 gigawatt (GW) of compute capacity globally.
The launch builds on Phoenix Group’s already aggressive expansion in Ethiopia, a nation seeking to generate crucial foreign currency from its excess electricity. The company initially secured an 80 MW power purchase agreement (PPA) with EEP in early 2025, which was quickly followed by an additional 52 MW in April 2025, bringing its total secured power in the country to 132 MW. The operational 30MW site is part of this larger plan, positioning Ethiopia as a sustainable digital infrastructure hub in Africa.
Munaf Ali, Co-founder and Group CEO of Phoenix Group, emphasized the strategic advantages: “This deployment represents a major advancement in Phoenix’s global growth strategy and marks our entry into one of the world’s most energy-rich emerging markets. Ethiopia offers a compelling combination of renewable power, long-term energy visibility, and government partnership… all critical factors as we scale toward 1GW and reinforce our commitment to renewable energy and responsible growth.”
Analyst Confidence and Future Goals
Phoenix’s presence in Ethiopia supports the country’s wider digital and industrial objectives, including investment attraction, energy export monetization, and technology infrastructure development.
Following Phoenix’s Q3 2025 earnings release, H.C. Wainwright & Co. reaffirmed its “Buy” rating and AED 3.00 price target (approximately $0.82). Ali noted that the report “validates our team’s strategic execution and the confidence in our global expansion.”
The firm praised the company’s expansion, citing strong self-mining margins and characterizing the growing geographic footprint as a “material step in derisking geographic concentration while building long-term energy access.”
With the Ethiopian site now online, Phoenix is actively transitioning from a pure-play mining model to a diversified digital infrastructure platform that will support future AI hosting, compute leasing, and High-Performance Computing (HPC) capabilities.
FAQ 💡
- Where is Phoenix Group’s new mining facility located? It is in Addis Ababa’s Bole Lemi Industrial Park, Ethiopia.
- How much power does the site use? The hydropower-backed facility runs on 30 MW from Ethiopia’s national grid.
- What impact does this have on Phoenix Group? It adds 1.9 EH/s to its hashrate and supports its goal of scaling to 1 GW globally.
- Why is Ethiopia important for this expansion? The country offers renewable energy, foreign currency generation, and a growing role as Africa’s digital hub.
