Bitcoin (BTC) miners are more and more shifting towards synthetic intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) as transaction price revenues stay inconsistent, in line with a current VanEck report.
The agency famous that whereas community congestion can result in non permanent price spikes, long-term on-chain income progress stays unsure as a result of rise of off-chain options resembling exchange-traded funds (ETFs), futures markets, layer-2 (L2) options, and centralized exchanges.
As block rewards halve each 4 years, Bitcoin miners should adapt since BTC’s value must double to keep up income ranges. This dynamic highlights the significance of pivoting to AI and HPC as diversification methods.
Pivoting strikes
Profitable Bitcoin miners are integrating various methods to optimize income streams.
Some use mining to subsidize grid enlargement in distant vitality markets. In distinction, others leverage current energy infrastructure to help AI and HPC workloads, which provide larger margins and unlock new financing avenues.
Improvements in liquid cooling programs, chip design, and co-location applied sciences additional enhance operational efficiencies.
The shift towards AI and HPC has gained momentum following CoreWeave’s 700MW AI/HPC settlement in 2024, prompting a number of Bitcoin miners to discover comparable income streams.
Bitfarms (BITF) has engaged AI/HPC consultants to evaluate feasibility throughout North American websites. On the identical time, Bitdeer (BTDR) has cited ongoing discussions with AI/HPC growth companions after finishing its knowledge middle consulting engagement.
Cipher Mining (CIFR) secured a $50 million funding from SoftBank in January to help its HPC knowledge middle enlargement. Riot Platforms (RIOT) expanded its board of administrators to incorporate experience in AI/HPC funding banking, knowledge facilities, and actual property.
In the meantime, HIVE Digital Applied sciences (HIVE) appointed Craig Tavares as President and COO of Buzz HPC to guide the agency’s progress in HPC and GPU cloud providers.
Iris Power (IREN) is advancing its AI and HPC initiatives with a 75 megawatts (MW) liquid-cooled AI/HPC knowledge middle set to launch in Childress, Texas, by the second half of 2025.
Moreover, the corporate plans to increase its Sweetwater website with one other 600 MW. The enlargement will carry the overall capability to 2 GW, making it one in all North America’s largest AI/HPC-eligible websites.
The report famous the rarity of such large-scale websites and emphasised their strategic benefit in offering dense compute clusters important for AI mannequin coaching and iterative workloads.
Scaling electrical capability
The pivoting to new enterprise fashions, resembling AI, has added to Bitcoin miners’ necessity to scale electrical capability.
The report assessed 13 public Bitcoin miners, revealing a collective operational capability of seven.1 gigawatts (GW). Growth plans venture a rise to 11.7 GW by 2025, 15.9 GW by 2026, and 20.4 GW by 2027, representing a compound annual progress fee of 42% over three years.
A further 7.3 GW pipeline is deliberate past 2028, although that is thought of a conservative estimate given the aggressive nature of energy procurement in Bitcoin mining.
Scaling these operations would require important funding. Assuming enlargement by means of 2027 employs a modernized Bitmain Antminer S21 Execs fleet, priced at $5,000 every, alongside $450,000 per MW of supporting infrastructure, the overall capital expenditure is estimated at $24.8 billion.
Nonetheless, Bitcoin miners are unlikely to dedicate all capability to mining since securing electrical capability has turn into a key competency amid rising AI energy calls for.
Goldman Sachs estimates that AI at present consumes roughly 7.7 GW of worldwide knowledge middle energy utilization, accounting for 14% of the overall. The determine is projected to extend to 22.7 GW (27%) by 2027.
Given this pattern, Bitcoin miners are anticipated to allocate 20-30% of their electrical capability to AI and HPC workloads, reflecting a strategic pivot towards extra sustainable and diversified income streams.
