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For crypto miners turned AI stars, the real test is about to come
A Bitdeer Technologies cryptocurrency mining data center under construction in Massillon, Ohio. Bloomberg/Getty Images; Tyler Le/BI 2026-04-05T10:43:01.230Z Former crypto miners are pivoting to AI, leveraging legacy power contracts to land deals with Big Tech. These firms must deliver complex, capital-intensive projects on tight timelines. Falling borrowing costs show lenders are betting these firms will be key to scaling infrastructure. They're the biggest beneficiaries of the artificial intelligence race you've never heard of. While the largest tech firms have unveiled unprecedented spending for AI infrastructure, and leading language developers Anthropic and OpenAI close in on blockbuster IPOs, a group of former crypto-mining companies have quietly become power players amid the soaring demand for data centers.With names like TeraWulf, Applied Digital, Iren, Core Scientific, and Cipher Digital, the companies make up for their short track records with access to an even more essential ingredient for success: utility power contracts that allow them to quickly energize electricity-hungry AI computing facilities.That legacy wattage from their cryptomining days has drawn in big-name customers in need of high-performance computing space and has allowed several of these companies to complete a remarkable pivot from the faltering crypto market to the boundless opportunities of the AI boom."They have been more successful than anyone — including themselves — could have anticipated," said Nick Giles, a senior research analyst at B. Riley Securities who covers several of the firms, most of which are public. Giles and his team calculated that 11 of the leading former crypto-mining firms had grown from a cumulative market capitalization of roughly $2.1 billion in late 2022 to roughly $48.5 billion today — which he said was a "winning scenario" for investors."It's a mindblowing jump in valuation," said Brian Dobson, a managing director at Clear Street who heads the firm's technology equity research.To justify the stock market's rapid revaluation, these companies now need to deliver on building state-of-the-art AI facilities for some of the world's largest and most demanding tech firms. The projects are far more expensive and complex than the mining operations they are experienced with, and depend on successfully connecting to power grids that are increasingly strained by the data center boom. If all goes according to plan, the industry will cumulatively consume en...
Bitcoin Miners Are Becoming AI Companies, and It Changes Everything for ...
Table of Contents The Math of Bitcoin Mining Stopped Working?Enter the $70 Billion PivotWhat This Does to BTC SupplyMining vs. AI Hosting: The Revenue Model ShiftThe Risks Traders Cannot IgnoreWhat Traders Should WatchFinal thoughtsFAQs TL;DR The average public Bitcoin miner spent ~$80,000 to produce one BTC last quarter, well above the ~$70K market price. Unable to profit from mining, major miners are signing $70 billion in AI compute contracts instead. This pivot reduces new BTC sell pressure, since miners no longer need to dump coins to cover costs. The Math of Bitcoin Mining Stopped Working? Main guide: What is Bitcoin Mining? Bitcoin mining used to be simple. Mine coins. Sell coins. Cover costs. Profit. That equation broke in Q1 2026. The average public Bitcoin miner spent approximately $79,995 to produce a single Bitcoin last quarter. With BTC trading around $70,000, every coin mined is a loss before overheads even enter the picture. This is not a temporary dip: Halving cycles reduce miner rewards every four years, and the most recent halving made the economics structurally harder. Energy costs have not dropped. Competition for hash rate has not eased. Enter the $70 Billion Pivot BTC mining may not be profitable, but the machines still have value. Because these are powerful, energy-hungry computers sitting in large facilities with established power contracts. That infrastructure is exactly what AI companies need. Over the past 12 months, Bitcoin miners have collectively signed an estimated $70 billion in AI compute contracts, converting their data centers into GPU and ASIC farms for large language models, inference workloads, and training runs. Companies like Core Scientific, CleanSpark, and Bit Digital have either pivoted partially or entirely toward hosting AI workloads. The pitch to investors: stable, recurring revenue from AI clients instead of volatile BTC price exposure. What This Does to BTC Supply Miners have historically been the most predictable source of sell pressure in the Bitcoin market. They receive newly minted BTC daily and must sell a portion to cover operational costs: electricity, staff, debt. When miners pivot to AI, two things happen: They sell less BTC:AI compute revenue is paid in fiat (USD). Miners no longer need to liquidate BTC holdings to cover costs. Some are even accumulating rather than selling. New BTC issuance still happens, but miners hold more of it:With operational costs covered by AI contracts, ...
Bitcoin Miners Are Becoming AI Infrastructure Giants As BTC Sales Fund ...
Bitcoin mining companies are undergoing a structural transformation that is reshaping both the crypto supply landscape and the broader digital infrastructure economy. Across the sector, large publicly listed miners are increasingly redirecting their business models toward artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC), funding this shift by selling portions of their Bitcoin ...
Bitcoin Miners Pivot to AI Hosting as Hash Rate Drops - Phemex
Bitcoin miners lost $19,000 per BTC mined in Q1 2026 and are signing $70B+ in AI contracts. Here's what the AI pivot means for hash rate, sell pressure, and BTC price.
