Bitcoin Miners Shift to AI as Contracts Near $100B

| cryptobriefing.com
Bitcoin miners are shifting power and grid-connected sites from Bitcoin mining to artificial intelligence and high-performance computing (HPC) after the 2024 halving squeezed margins. Public miners have announced an estimated $70 billion to $100 billion in AI-related contracts. AI customers can generate about $1.5 million per megawatt annually, compared with roughly $500,000 for Bitcoin mining. Recent agreements include Core Scientific’s 12-year, $10.2 billion deal with CoreWeave for 590 megawatts, TeraWulf’s reported $12.8 billion in contracted HPC revenue and IREN’s approximately $9.7 billion, five-year GPU cloud agreement with Microsoft. Hut 8 has also secured long-term leases worth up to billions of dollars. However, much of this income remains prospective. Of roughly 4 gigawatts of contracted AI and HPC capacity, only about 550 megawatts is generating revenue, implying utilisation of around 14%. Current annualised revenue is estimated at $1.1 billion to $1.5 billion. Earlier industry data also showed nine public Bitcoin miners spending $5.11 billion on capital assets in the first half of 2026, while directly reporting only $341.2 million in AI and HPC revenue. The transition could remove about 35 exahashes per second from public miners. AI-focused mining companies trade at roughly 12 to 13 times forward sales, versus 3.7 to 6 times for Bitcoin-focused peers. Traders should monitor project execution, tenant credit quality, financing, power availability and whether contracted capacity becomes recurring revenue. Bitcoin miners may gain higher-margin income over the long term, but near-term returns remain dependent on construction and customer delivery.
Neutral
The news is neutral for BTC’s direct price outlook. In the short term, miners’ large capital spending and limited realised AI revenue could pressure mining-stock sentiment, but this does not immediately change Bitcoin’s supply schedule or demand. A reduction of about 35 EH/s in public-miner capacity could affect network hashrate and mining difficulty, yet the impact on BTC security and price is likely limited because other miners can replace part of the capacity. Over the longer term, AI and HPC contracts may improve miners’ cash flow and reduce forced BTC selling if the projects are delivered. That could provide indirect support for BTC. However, the low current utilisation rate, construction requirements, financing needs and reliance on major tenants create execution risks. Traders are therefore more likely to see volatility in mining equities than a decisive move in BTC itself.