Are Bitcoin Miners Now Abandoning BTC to Work on Artificial Intelligence? Industry Members Respond

Shares of the large-scale mining companies that power the Bitcoin network are once again outperforming BTC itself, driven by the companies' increasing shift toward hybrid models centered on artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC). These companies, once called “miners” in analogy with mining traditional commodities like gold, have long been vulnerable to wild swings in the price of ￰0￱ sector, which benefited from the first wave of the AI boom in 2023, saw its stock decline the following year as profits plummeted and competition intensified. However, the landscape has changed in ￰1￱ the crypto market's decline in recent weeks, Bitcoin is up 14% this year and is close to the record high of $126,000 reached at the beginning of the ￰2￱ Trump administration's pro-cryptocurrency policies during its second term have revived investors' interest in Bitcoin.

Yet, the real winners this year haven't been BTC, but rather mining ￰3￱ index tracking mining companies has risen over 150% since the beginning of the ￰4￱ say investors are now viewing these companies not simply as miners but as “technology infrastructure companies.” “Investors are currently evaluating Bitcoin miners almost entirely on HPC and AI ￰5￱ than 10% of the topics we discuss are related to Bitcoin mining,” said John Todaro, an analyst at Needham & ￰6￱ the most prominent examples of this transformation are Cipher Mining and ￰7￱ of the two Nasdaq-listed companies have risen by 300% and 500%, respectively, this ￰8￱ the beginning of the year, Cipher signed a 10-year, approximately $3 billion collaboration agreement with Google-backed ￰9￱ the agreement, Fluidstack received $1.4 billion in lease guarantees in exchange for a 5.4% equity ￰10￱ agreement is being interpreted as one of the clearest indicators of the growing intertwining of crypto mining and AI computing.

Singapore-based Bitdeer Technologies Group surged nearly 30% on ￰11￱ company plans to convert several mining sites, including its 570-megawatt Clarington facility in Ohio, into AI data ￰12￱ said this transformation could generate over $2 billion in annual revenue by the end of 2026 in a best-case scenario. “AI and HPC are not replacing mining; they are complementing ￰13￱ will transform by selecting facilities whose profitability is sustainable over the long term,” said Jeff LaBerge, vice president of capital markets and strategy at ￰14￱ strategic shift by miners accelerated after the Bitcoin halving in ￰15￱ decrease in the reward per block from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC, combined with increased network difficulty and decreasing transaction volumes, severely narrowed profit ￰16￱ News: Founder of This Altcoin Bought a Significant Amount of His Own Token: The Price Chart Turned Green TheMinerMag analyst Wolfie Zhao noted that many companies are now turning to more efficient use of existing energy capacity rather than increasing hash rate, saying, “Companies like Riot Platforms, IREN, and Bitfarms aren't planning to increase their hash power in the near ￰17￱ focus has shifted from 'how much hash can we add' to 'how efficiently can we use energy'.” “Revenue per megawatt and EBITDA margins are much higher in AI and HPC compared to mining,” said Needham analyst Todaro.

“Due to Bitcoin's volatility and halving risks, capital markets are now valuing AI-focused data centers much higher than traditional miners.” *This is not investment ￰18￱ Reading: Are Bitcoin Miners Now Abandoning BTC to Work on Artificial Intelligence? Industry Members Respond