Rumble jumps 17% after $767M deal creates Quake AI unit

Rumble surged more than 17% in pre-market trading after completing its $767 million acquisition of Northern Data, rebranding the German AI infrastructure provider as Quake AI and renaming the parent company RUM Group Inc.

"We are living through a once-in-a-generation shift," Chief Executive Officer Chris Pavlovski said. "As artificial intelligence makes knowledge abundant, the scarcest and most valuable resource on Earth becomes the one thing machines can't manufacture: human imagination."

The deal gives RUM Group ownership of approximately 22,000 NVIDIA H100 and H200 GPUs across 10 European data centers, along with roughly 250 megawatts of energized and contracted power capacity — more than 200 megawatts of which remains unmonetized. Northern Data recently raised its 2026 revenue forecast to between €170 million ($196 million) and €190 million ($219 million), up from an earlier outlook of €130 million to €150 million, citing strong demand for AI computing capacity.

The restructuring positions RUM Group as a dual-business holding company: Rumble for video and media, and Quake AI for cloud and AI infrastructure. With a market capitalization of roughly $3 billion and a data center portfolio carrying an estimated $9 billion in book value, the company is betting that owning both the compute layer and the content distribution layer will create a vertically integrated alternative to hyperscalers like Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.

Quake AI's Infrastructure Stack

Quake AI integrates Northern Data's GPU fleet with Rumble Cloud's existing CPU-based networking, storage and computing platform. The combined infrastructure spans four owned data centers and six colocation facilities, with most planned capacity expected to come online by 2027. The 250 megawatts of power capacity — enough to supply roughly 200,000 average US homes — gives the company room to deploy additional AI hardware without immediate capacity constraints.

The GPU portfolio of approximately 22,000 NVIDIA H100 and H200 accelerators positions Quake AI as a mid-tier player in the AI cloud market, competing with CoreWeave, Lambda and Vultr for enterprise and startup workloads. By comparison, Microsoft and Amazon each operate fleets exceeding 100,000 NVIDIA GPUs, according to published estimates.

Revenue Backing and Customer Commitments

The company has secured two anchor customers. Crypto firm Tether agreed to purchase up to $150 million in GPU computing services over two years and has already committed $100 million to advertising on Rumble. Together AI, a cloud platform for open-source AI models, signed a $270 million multi-year agreement for dedicated AI cloud services.

Northern Data's revised 2026 revenue forecast of €170 million to €190 million reflects high utilization rates across its GPU fleet, the company said. The upward revision of €40 million from the prior outlook signals that demand for AI compute capacity continues to outstrip supply, a dynamic that has benefited infrastructure providers across the sector.

Rumble also provides video streaming and cloud services for Truth Social, the social media platform owned by Trump Media & Technology Group. CEO Pavlovski's appearance at UFC Freedom 250 on the White House South Lawn last week fueled speculation among retail investors about potential government cloud contracts, though the company has not disclosed any such agreements.

RUM Group shares, which trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker RUM, have gained more than 50% year-to-date. The stock trades at roughly 15 times forward sales, a discount to CoreWeave's estimated multiple of 20 times, reflecting the market's uncertainty about whether the company can execute on its dual-business strategy. Additional details regarding product offerings and development plans are expected in the coming months.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.