Genius Group and FingerMotion sign second 100 MW Alberta campus agreement
Brooks campus closing requires a credit-backed customer contract and committed financing, while the proposed debt funding remains an expectation.
Julian Okafor
A second Alberta computing partnership targets gas-powered campuses where customers would supply the hardware, with financing and customer contracts still required. Genius Group Limited NYSEAMERICANGNS, an AI education provider expanding into computing infrastructure, announced binding agreements on Thursday for up to 100 megawatts of powered land and colocation campuses.
FingerMotion, Inc. NASDAQFNGR, historically a provider of mobile-payment, recharge and data-analytics services in China, would own 75 per cent of each campus company. Genius would hold the remainder. BlueFlare Energy Solutions Inc., the Calgary developer of gas-powered computing infrastructure, would develop, build and operate the first campus.
The Nov. 5 joint announcement anticipates financing each campus with 60 to 80 per cent non-recourse project debt. It names no committed lender or equity contribution amounts. Closing the first project requires a credit-backed customer contract, committed financing, BlueFlare agreements, due diligence and regulatory approvals.
Google Finance showed Genius at US$0.11 on NYSE American at its Nov. 3 close, timestamped 4:00 p.m. EST NYSEAMERICANGNS. FingerMotion's displayed close was US$0.11 on Nasdaq on Nov. 4 at 4:00 p.m. EST NASDAQFNGR. Both observations preceded Thursday's announcement.
Brooks Adds A Partnership To An Existing Pipeline
The Brooks Corridor Campus Program is described as a second project alongside the partners' GENIUSpark Alberta compute venture announced on Oct. 27. The new program envisages ten sites, each with capacity of up to 9.9 megawatts, held in separate Alberta campus companies.
That is a new ownership arrangement rather than proof of an entirely additional block of development capacity. FingerMotion's Nov. 4 customer-interest announcement already identified Brooks Campus No. 1 as the first site in its previously announced 99-megawatt Alberta power and compute program. Thursday's release does not reconcile all site overlap between the two ventures.
The businesses also overlap operationally. FingerMotion will use best commercial efforts to reserve 10 per cent of each Brooks campus for GENIUSpark Alberta, whose model includes owning the computing equipment. Other Brooks customers would bring their own hardware under long-term take-or-pay contracts.
The Oct. 27 agreement gave FingerMotion a majority interest in GENIUSpark Alberta, with Genius holding 49 per cent. Its first project at Hanna targets 2.4 megawatts of computing capacity, with construction planned for December and first compute in the second quarter of 2027.
Mugglehead's reporting on Genius's proposed Australian dual listing traced that conditional Hanna timetable before Thursday's Brooks agreement. The new transaction extends the Alberta partnership into customer-owned compute rather than announcing completion of Hanna.
Read more: Genius Group directs management to apply for ASX dual listing
Construction Capital Follows Customer Contracts
FingerMotion and BlueFlare lead site selection, power, construction, financing and client relationships under the Brooks arrangement. Genius leads community and reskilling programs. Both equity partners must approve budgets, new borrowing, new investors, client contracts and related-party contracts.
"Our strategy is to contract capacity on long-term terms before we commit construction capital, and Brooks Campus No. 1 will be our pilot site for the full 100 MW Brooks corridor project," FingerMotion chief executive Jolie Kahn said in Thursday's release.
The first Brooks site is described by the partners as permitted, near Tilley in the County of Newell. They say an adjacent operating natural gas facility can supply fuel at the boundary, allowing generation behind the meter without a grid connection. Powered land is expected to be available in the first quarter of 2027.
That land milestone differs from delivering customer-ready computing capacity. The prospective customer arrangement targets the first service tranche six months after a subsequent binding agreement takes effect, with full capacity contemplated within 12 to 14 months.
Customer Interest Remains Non-Binding
The customer expression of interest covers up to 7 megawatts of critical IT capacity at Brooks. FingerMotion said on Nov. 4 that the end customer, represented by an intermediary, remains unnamed. The document provides a 30-day exclusivity period for negotiations toward binding documentation.
The prospective customer would also have an election right for another 3 megawatts at a nearby second site sharing gas supply, fibre and staff. Those expansion rights are contemplated terms of the non-binding expression of interest, rather than contracted capacity.
Thursday's release also cites earlier non-binding indications of interest for up to 52.5 megawatts across the Alberta program. Neither those indications nor the Brooks expression establish signed take-or-pay revenue; FingerMotion explicitly cautioned that a binding customer agreement may never be reached.
The next dated development milestone is the first-quarter 2027 target for powered land at Brooks. Before closing, the partners must secure the customer contract and project financing identified in Thursday's announcement; the six-month service timetable would begin only when a subsequent binding agreement takes effect.
