Key Takeaways:
Keel Infrastructure hired a former Digital Realty executive to lead commercial growth as the former bitcoin miner pushes deeper into AI data center development.
Keel Infrastructure Corp. appointed former Digital Realty Trust Chief Business Officer Ganesh Aiyer as president, adding executive depth as the company pushes to convert its 2.2-gigawatt development pipeline into long-term customer contracts.
"Aiyer has a strong track record of execution and understands how to build go-to-market strategies around differentiated products," Chief Executive Officer Ben Gagnon said in a statement.
Aiyer, who managed commercial strategy across more than 300 data centers in 25 countries at Digital Realty, will oversee Keel's pipeline expansion and commercial operations. The company has secured zoning approvals at sites in Panther Creek, Pennsylvania; Sharon, Pennsylvania; and Moses Lake, Washington, with land development and environmental permitting underway. Keel reported $37 million in first-quarter revenue and held about $533 million in total liquidity as of May 8, including $197 million in unencumbered bitcoin.
The hire comes as Keel completes a strategic overhaul that included redomiciling to the United States and exiting Latin American operations earlier this year. The company, which trades under the ticker KEEL on Nasdaq and the Toronto Stock Exchange, saw its shares rise 10% on the announcement, reflecting investor confidence in the pivot from bitcoin mining to AI-linked power and compute infrastructure.
Aiyer's compensation package includes a $500,000 base salary and $1.5 million in restricted stock units, according to the company's filing. Before Digital Realty, he held senior executive roles at Schneider Electric and Dell Technologies, giving him exposure across the full data center infrastructure stack — from power equipment to server deployment.
Keel defines its 2.2 GW pipeline as the sum of energized, secured, and expansion capacity across its three operating regions. The company has established grid interconnections in Pennsylvania, Washington, and Quebec, positioning it to serve hyperscale cloud providers and AI developers that require power-secured sites capable of supporting dense compute workloads.
The appointment addresses a critical gap for Keel: commercial execution. While the company has assembled a sizable power portfolio and secured zoning approvals, it has yet to announce major customer contracts that would validate its transition from bitcoin mining to AI infrastructure. Aiyer's experience scaling Digital Realty's commercial operations — a REIT that generated more than $5 billion in annual revenue — provides a template for converting Keel's pipeline into recurring revenue. Keel shares, which have rallied on the pivot narrative, now trade with the valuation of an infrastructure developer rather than a crypto miner, making customer wins the next catalyst to watch.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
