Major Bitcoin miners are increasingly converting their energy facilities and network infrastructure into data centers for AI and high-performance computing (HPC), reports Cointelegraph.

By the end of 2025, the global capacity of AI data centers is expected to reach 29.6 GW, according to data from Stanford University. The industry's main challenge is not hardware, but access to electricity: substations, cooling, and permits. For this reason, miners have been building Bitcoin mining sites in recent years.

Stanford University also noted that in 2022, AI capacity was below 1 GW, but it has increased nearly 200 times in three years. The total electricity demand for AI is projected to reach 9.4 GW by 2024. The most resource-intensive training runs could consume over 100 MW. Since 2006, the cost of GPU computing has dropped by more than 99%.

Total capacity of AI data centers. Source: Cointelegraph.

In the U.S., the university counted 5,427 data centers.

Electricity Proves More Valuable Than ASICs

Miners' specialized equipment is unsuitable for training models or inference. AI clients require energy facilities, electricity supply contracts, network connectivity, and ready-made racks. Such facilities are often located in U.S. regions with cheap electricity, including Texas and the Gulf Coast.

Several miners have already signed significant deals in the AI and HPC sectors:

  • In November 2025, IREN signed a five-year agreement with Microsoft for cloud GPU services worth approximately $9.7 billion for a 750 MW campus in Childress, Texas;
  • In December 2025, Hut 8 signed a 15-year contract with Fluidstack for $7 billion for the River Bend facility in Louisiana, which has a capacity of 245 MW. Payments are secured by Google;
  • TeraWulf announced contracted revenue from HPC of $12.8 billion and reported that it is already earning more from rentals than from mining;
  • Core Scientific expanded its agreement with CoreWeave to $10.2 billion over 12 years.

AI Shift Alters Valuation of Crypto Companies

According to CoinShares, public miners have announced AI and HPC contracts totaling over $70 billion. Companies with such agreements are trading at a revenue multiple of 12.3 over the past 12 months, compared to 5.9 for miners focused solely on Bitcoin mining.

Analysts anticipate that the share of AI in the revenue of public miners could rise to about 70% by the end of 2026, up from around 30% in the first quarter of 2026.

According to JPMorgan, the economics of Bitcoin mining have sharply deteriorated this year. The average cost to mine one coin is $78,000, while the current price is approximately $60,000. At this price level, over 20% of miners are operating at a loss.

However, the transition to AI remains costly. CoinShares estimates the typical infrastructure cost for cryptocurrency mining at $700,000 to $1 million per MW. AI facilities with liquid cooling may require $8-15 million per MW.

Cointelegraph also highlighted risks: rising debt burdens, delays in project launches, and dependence on a limited number of hyperscalers. For instance, Hut 8 plans to launch River Bend only in the second quarter of 2027. By the end of March 2026, IREN disclosed about $3.75 billion in convertible debt and raised an additional $3 billion through a new issuance in May.

It is worth noting that in May, the largest public miners sold over 32,000 BTC—more than in all of 2025.