Rumble secures 85% of Northern Data in exchange offer for AI push

Rumble has secured about 85.2% of Northern Data's share capital through its exchange offer, clearing the path for the video platform to build an integrated AI and cloud infrastructure business.

Rumble Inc. said Monday that 8,174,379 Northern Data shares were tendered in the offer, representing 46.2% of shares not covered by transaction support agreements. Including committed shares, the company now holds approximately 85.2% of the German high-performance computing provider's outstanding share capital, according to a statement.

"The high acceptance rate demonstrates that the vast majority of Northern Data shareholders approve of the transaction and the underlying strategic rationale," Rumble said in the statement.

The exchange offer, which expired June 1, 2026, carries a ratio of 2.0281 Rumble shares for each Northern Data share. Rumble has registered as many as 130,197,281 Class A shares as consideration. Former Northern Data holders would own about 33.3% of Rumble's pro forma Class A shares at full acceptance. All regulatory approvals have been obtained, and closing is expected in mid-June 2026, with Northern Data expected to file for delisting from the Munich stock exchange's m:access segment immediately afterward.

The acquisition marks a strategic pivot for Rumble, best known as a free-speech video platform competing with YouTube, into the capital-intensive AI infrastructure business. Northern Data operates one of Europe's largest GPU clusters for high-performance computing through its Taiga Cloud unit, while its Ardent Data Centers business has roughly 250 megawatts of power deployed or coming online across 10 global data centers by 2027. The combined company aims to become "a leading, independent force in AI computation, cloud infrastructure, and digital video innovation," Rumble said.

The deal comes as demand for AI compute capacity continues to outstrip supply, with companies like Microsoft, Amazon, and Google investing tens of billions of dollars in data center expansion. Rumble's move mirrors a broader trend of non-traditional technology companies seeking exposure to the AI infrastructure buildout. Earlier this month, Rumble signed a multi-year agreement with Together AI to deploy Nvidia Blackwell GPU capacity, signaling its intent to compete in the cloud services market.

Rumble shares closed at $7.58 on Friday, down 7.33% on the day, though trading volume of 4.9 million shares was 25% above the 20-day average of 3.9 million. The stock has shown mixed reactions to recent strategic announcements, with the Northern Data exchange offer deadline in late May producing a 9.4% gain, while Q1 earnings and content partnership news coincided with double-digit declines.

The transaction still requires satisfaction of remaining offer conditions, though Rumble said all regulatory clearances are in place. Northern Data shareholders who did not tender their shares will face delisting of the stock from the Munich exchange, with no separate delisting offer required under the terms of the deal.

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