Rumble Stock Surges 26%. It’s Getting a Boost From This AI Acquisition.

Video-sharing platform Rumble said Monday that it would acquire acquire German AI infrastructure company Northern Data in a deal valued at up to $970 million. (CHRIS DELMAS/AFP via Getty Images)

Key Points

• Rumble will acquire German AI infrastructure company Northern Data in a deal valued at up to $970 million.
• Northern Data shareholders will receive 2.0281 newly issued Class A Rumble shares for each share they own.
• Rumble reports a third-quarter loss of 6 cents a share, with revenue decreasing 1.2% to $24.8 million.

Rumble soared Monday after the video-sharing platform said it would acquire Germany artificial-intelligence infrastructure company Northern Data in a deal valued at up t0 $970 million.

Shares in Rumble, which positions itself as a conservative alternative to YouTube, jumped 26% to $7.40 ahead of the opening bell. Northern Data’s Frankfurt-listed stock jumped 46% to €17.17.

Under the terms of the deal, Northern Data shareholders will receive 2.0281 newly issued Class A Rumble shares in exchange for each Northern Data share that they own. That suggests Rumble values Northern Data at about $767 million, or $11.95 a share.

Northern Data shareholders also may get cash payments worth $200 million in total, provided the Germany company sells its Corpus Christi, Texas, data center to an unnamed infrastructure asset management firm.

The agreement, which unites two companies backed by the stablecoin issuer Tether , will allow Rumble to obtain more than 40,000 Nvidia graphics processing units and take on more data-center capacity. In other words, it’s an obvious AI play.

“This is how we build the AI ecosystem for the future, from the ground up,” Rumble CEO Chris Pavlovski said.

“The addition of GPUs and data centers to our existing video and cloud portfolio would just be the start,” he added, noting that the company plans to expand into financial services and by rolling out AI chatbots and agents.

Rumble also posted its third-quarter earnings Monday. The company reported a third-quarter loss of 6 cents a share as revenue slipped 1.2% from a year ago to $24.8 million. Analysts were expecting a loss of 6 cents a share on revenue of $26.8 million, according to FactSet.

Write to George Glover at george.glover@dowjones.com