US Bitcoin Miners Shift Focus to AI
â–Ľ Summary
– In June 2024, Riot Platforms was constructing the world’s largest bitcoin mine in Texas, but by late 2025, two-thirds of the facility is being repurposed for AI and high-performance computing.
– At least eight other major US bitcoin mining companies have announced similar partial or full pivots to AI in the last 18 months, reflecting a widespread industry trend.
– This shift is driven by intense demand from AI companies for data centers capable of handling energy-intensive workloads to train their models.
– Bitcoin mining profitability is under severe pressure due to increased network competition, a halved block reward, and a significant drop in bitcoin’s price from its 2025 peak.
– Industry experts note that bitcoin mining created the infrastructure blueprint for AI data centers and that pivoting to AI offers mining companies a lower cost of capital and a ready-built “powered shell.”
Standing at the perimeter of a vast industrial site near Corsicana, Texas, the scene is one of intense activity. Heavy machinery moves earth while trucks rumble across the property, all centered around a massive hangar with a pristine white roof. This facility, owned by Riot Platforms, was originally designed to be the planet’s largest bitcoin mining operation. Today, its purpose is transforming. A significant portion of the construction is now being redirected to support artificial intelligence and high-performance computing, signaling a fundamental shift in the industry’s ambitions.
This transition is not an isolated event. A nearly identical story is unfolding at mining sites across the country operated by numerous firms. Over the past year and a half, at least eight other publicly traded bitcoin mining companies have revealed strategies to partially or completely shift their focus toward AI. This move is a direct response to the insatiable demand from AI developers for data center capacity capable of supporting the enormous energy needs of model training. Ironically, the very mining companies that helped enable the AI infrastructure boom by investing heavily in data centers now find themselves compelled to adapt or be left behind.
Industry experts point to the financial logic behind this strategic pivot. “Bitcoin mining essentially drafted the initial plans for the modern AI data center and the compute explosion we’re seeing,” explains Meltem Demirors, a general partner at Crucible Capital. She notes that for these firms, “the cost of capital is far more attractive when they align with the AI narrative. They already possess the powered building shell; they remove the mining rigs, and their new client supplies the graphics processing units.”
Several converging factors have created a challenging environment for traditional mining profitability. Mining operations earn rewards by using computational power to solve complex puzzles and validate bitcoin transactions. Success hinges on the market price of bitcoin, the total computing power dedicated to the network, and the expense of the electricity required to run specialized hardware.
Recent years have seen the difficulty of these puzzles increase dramatically due to hardware advances and intense competition, meaning more computing power is needed for the same reward. Compounding this, the bitcoin reward itself was cut in half during 2024, a scheduled event that occurs approximately every four years. With the price of bitcoin also retreating significantly from its recent highs, the economic equation has become precarious for many operators.
“The economics are terrible today,” states Charles Chong, Vice President of Strategy at BlockSpaceForce. He elaborates that the uncertainty is so high that “if I purchase a bitcoin mining machine now, I cannot be confident I will ever recoup the investment.” This perfect storm of rising costs and falling rewards is accelerating the industry’s strategic turn toward the more predictable and currently booming demand of AI compute.
(Source: Wired)