{"id":90845,"date":"2025-11-10T18:06:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T15:06:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=90845"},"modified":"2025-11-10T18:11:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T15:11:11","slug":"hash-rate-gives-way-to-ai-bitcoin-miners-bet-on-data-centres","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/hash-rate-gives-way-to-ai-bitcoin-miners-bet-on-data-centres\/","title":{"rendered":"Hash rate gives way to AI: bitcoin miners bet on data centres"},"content":{"rendered":"

Seven of the ten largest miners by hash rate now derive revenue from AI or high-performance computing (HPC). The other three plan to follow, reports CryptoSlate<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"image\"
The largest miners by hash rate and participation in AI and high-performance computing. Source: CryptoSlate.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Crypto miners are building a second line of business that competes with traditional ASIC<\/span> mining and provides contracted income from clients using GPU<\/span> infrastructure.<\/p>\n

A shift in focus<\/h2>\n

In August TeraWulf signed a ten-year contract<\/a> with the cloud AI platform Fluidstack. Backed by Google, the miner will provide about 250 MW for a total of $3.7bn.<\/p>\n

The firm will offer its Lake Mariner campus in western New York to host high-performance computing capacity. The facility is engineered for liquid cooling of AI loads and built for scale.<\/p>\n

The deal envisages roughly $3.7bn of revenue over the first ten years and includes two optional five-year extensions. If exercised, total revenue could reach $8.7bn.<\/p>\n

Google will guarantee $1.8bn of lease obligations. In return, the company will receive warrants to buy about 41m TeraWulf shares \u2014 roughly 8% of equity.<\/p>\n

In June 2024 Core Scientific signed<\/a> a 12-year contract with AI firm CoreWeave to provide 200 MW of infrastructure for hosting Nvidia GPUs.<\/p>\n

Core expects annual hosting revenue from CoreWeave of about $290m, totalling $3.5bn over the term.<\/p>\n

In October 2025 CleanSpark acquired 110 hectares of land and 285 MW of power in Texas for a \u2018next-generation\u2019 AI and HPC campus.<\/p>\n

In August MARA bought 64% of Exaion \u2014 an EDF subsidiary \u2014 to expand global capabilities in artificial intelligence and high-performance computing.<\/p>\n

Riot is weighing converting roughly 600 MW in Corsicana for AI and HPC and has suspended<\/a> all plans to expand mining. Bitfarms has hired advisers to study the shift and is marketing its sites to AI clients.<\/p>\n

Cipher Mining leased<\/a> its Colorado City, Texas, data centre to the UK\u2019s Fluidstack. Google agreed to guarantee $1.4bn of lease obligations in exchange for 5.4% of the miner\u2019s equity.<\/p>\n

Abu Dhabi\u2019s Phoenix Group plans to lift data-centre capacity above 1 GW with an AI focus. It is exploring a US listing to finance expansion.<\/p>\n

The economics<\/h2>\n

Bitcoin\u2019s total computational power is<\/a> around 1.08\u20131.1 ZH\/s. The network produces 144 blocks a day. Each pays a 3.125 BTC block subsidy plus transaction fees.<\/p>\n

Feeding 1 MW into a modern ASIC with efficiency of roughly 17 J\/TH yields about 0.059 ZH\/s. That share of the network earns roughly $1\u20131.6m a year before power and operating costs, assuming bitcoin at about $104,000.<\/p>\n

TeraWulf\u2019s AI contract implies $1.85m in annual revenue per MW. More stable cash flows and high margins are the main attractions for companies pivoting to neural networks.<\/p>\n

Utilities are adapting: American Electric Power has raised<\/a> its five-year investment plan to $72bn.<\/p>\n

The market is voting<\/h2>\n

Shares of bitcoin miners with AI sidelines are outperforming<\/a> peers focused solely on crypto mining.<\/p>\n

AI-tilted firms such as Core Scientific, IREN and TeraWulf have fared better, helped by investor confidence in diversified business models, more predictable revenue and greater flexibility.<\/p>\n

Analysts note that hash-rate growth at such miners may be slower than at pure-play bitcoin operators. But AI-focused firms are expanding data-centre infrastructure, opening additional opportunities in a fast-growing sector.<\/p>\n

\"image\"
Performance of different bitcoin miners\u2019 shares versus digital gold from January to August 2024. Data: Bernstein.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Constraints remain. Lead times for power and transformers, and the availability of gas turbines for new peaking loads, govern project start-ups. GPU supply is finite, too.<\/p>\n

In crypto mining, shifts in network activity can lift fees, narrowing the gap between mining revenue and AI hosting. A 0.5 BTC increase in average fees per block adds about $0.2\u20130.3m per MW per year.<\/p>\n

New metrics<\/h2>\n

AI compute contracts and dollars of revenue per MW are becoming the key metrics investors watch. A range of $1.5m\u2013$2m per MW per year is emerging as the benchmark for US hosting centres.<\/p>\n

Utilities\u2019 capital plans and interconnection-queue updates now matter as much to miners as ASIC delivery schedules.<\/p>\n

\"image\"
List of the largest miners, their hash rate, share of the global total and status of AI and HPC efforts. Source: CryptoSlate.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If US power markets tighten, miners with existing interconnections will monetise faster than those building from scratch.<\/p>\n

Implications for crypto<\/h2>\n

The upshot may be slower growth in bitcoin\u2019s aggregate hash rate if a significant share of new power goes to GPUs rather than ASICs.<\/p>\n

Even so, a high bitcoin price and bouts of fee spikes keep the industry attractive. But hash rate is becoming a less reliable gauge of miners\u2019 market value than in past cycles, CryptoSlate notes.<\/p>\n

In August 2024, AI\u2019s power consumption overtook<\/a> that of bitcoin mining.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seven of the ten largest miners by hash rate now derive revenue from AI or high-performance computing (HPC).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":90846,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"Seven of the top bitcoin miners earn from AI or HPC; others plan to follow.","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[438,1137],"class_list":["post-90845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-cryptocurrency-mining"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"328","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"Seven of the top bitcoin miners earn from AI or HPC; others plan to follow.","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90845"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90845\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90847,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90845\/revisions\/90847"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}