Crypto Miners Turn to AI and Data Center Infrastructure for New Growth

Bitcoin miners have been repurposing access to power, land and data-center infrastructure for artificial intelligence workloads as the April 2024 halving squeezed mining economics. Hut 8 and IREN are among operators seeking steadier, long-term revenue from high-performance computing and AI cloud services, reducing their dependence on Bitcoin prices and network difficulty. The strategy has become increasingly important as AI developers compete for scarce power and computing capacity.

On July 20, 2026, Hut 8 signed a second 15-year, $9.8 billion lease for 352 megawatts at its Beacon Point campus in Texas, taking the site’s base-term contract value to $19.6 billion. IREN separately announced $2.8 billion of new multi-year cloud contracts and raised its year-end AI Cloud annualized run-rate revenue target to more than $4 billion from $3.7 billion, with about 85% under contract. Hut 8 and IREN shares climbed more than 16% and 17%, respectively, in Monday trading.

AI training and inference are driving a surge in data-center electricity demand, but building new substations and securing grid connections often takes years. Bitcoin miners already control large-scale power contracts, land, substations and fiber connectivity, allowing them to take on AI and high-performance computing workloads faster than projects built from scratch. Success still depends on cooling systems, building retrofits and long-term customers.

A June 30 report said mining sites' grid connections had evolved from a cost of Bitcoin production into an AI asset. On February 26, 2025, Core Scientific expanded its CoreWeave contract to 590 MW, with estimated revenue of $10.2 billion over 12 years. On January 16, 2026, Riot Platforms signed a 10-year, $311 million lease with AMD, beginning with 25 MW and offering expansion to as much as 200 MW.

Institutional expansion is moving crypto assets beyond a trading theme and into corporate treasuries and computing infrastructure. Twenty One Capital, backed by Tether, Bitfinex, Cantor Fitzgerald and SoftBank, holds more than 42,000 Bitcoin. Bernstein said miners can repurpose existing power supplies and data centers for AI, adding a source of revenue following the halving.

On May 19, 2026, Tether acquired SoftBank’s approximately 26% stake in Twenty One Capital for an undisclosed amount. The same day, Polymarket and Nasdaq Private Market launched a prediction market for private companies. A May 18 report from CoinShares showed that digital asset funds recorded $1.07 billion in net outflows in the previous week, ending a six-week streak of inflows.

Bitcoin miners traditionally used energy-intensive computing to maintain the blockchain, but their grid connections, land, cooling systems and data centers can be converted relatively quickly into high-performance computing facilities for AI. Bitcoin completed its fourth halving on April 20, 2024, cutting the block reward to 3.125 BTC. The resulting pressure on mining revenue has also prompted operators to seek more stable income from AI hosting.

In a May 19, 2026, report, Bernstein estimated that publicly traded Bitcoin miners control more than 27 GW of planned power capacity. The industry has announced more than $90 billion in AI agreements covering about 3.7 GW. Bernstein also assigned outperform ratings to IREN, Riot Platforms, CleanSpark and Core Scientific, underscoring how access to power has become a bottleneck for AI data-center expansion.

Bitcoin undergoes a halving roughly every four years. In April 2024, the block reward fell from 6.25 bitcoin to 3.125 bitcoin, while CoinGecko estimated the cryptocurrency’s price at about $63,000 at the time. The reward is expected to fall again to 1.5625 bitcoin in April 2028. With energy costs and competition for computing power rising, miners need revenue from AI, high-performance computing and diversified power sources to reduce their reliance on mining alone.

From March 4 to March 25, 2026, MARA Holdings sold 15,133 bitcoin worth about $1.1 billion to repurchase $1 billion of convertible debt, a move expected to reduce its debt by about 30%. Bitdeer’s bitcoin holdings had fallen to zero as of February 20. Cango, meanwhile, plans facilities that can switch between AI and mining, while miners that have secured HPC contracts now command revenue multiples more than twice those of pure-play miners.

After Bitcoin's April 2024 halving, mining rewards shrank while network hashrate and electricity costs climbed. CoinShares estimates that listed miners' average cash cost per BTC reached $79,995 in the fourth quarter of 2025, above Bitcoin's roughly $68,000–$70,000 price in March 2026. Miners can repurpose their existing power capacity and data centers for AI computing, making the shift consequential for both corporate finances and Bitcoin network security.

As of March 2026, listed miners' combined BTC holdings had fallen by more than 15,000 coins from their peak. Core Scientific sold about 1,900 BTC worth $175 million in January, while Bitfarms cut its holdings from a peak of 3,301 BTC to 1,827 BTC. The industry has signed more than $70 billion in AI and high-performance computing contracts, including Core Scientific's 12-year, $10.2 billion agreement with CoreWeave.