Bitcoin (BTC) miners are an increasing number of tantalizing in the direction of synthetic intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) as transaction rate revenues remain inconsistent, based totally on a fresh VanEck insist.
The firm eminent that whereas network congestion can lead to momentary rate spikes, lengthy-time duration on-chain earnings bellow remains unsure attributable to the upward thrust of off-chain options equivalent to replace-traded funds (ETFs), futures markets, layer-2 (L2) options, and centralized exchanges.
As block rewards halve every four years, Bitcoin miners must adapt since BTC’s mark wants to double to back earnings levels. This dynamic highlights the significance of pivoting to AI and HPC as diversification suggestions.
Pivoting strikes
Worthwhile Bitcoin miners are integrating alternative suggestions to optimize earnings streams.
Some notify mining to subsidize grid growth in distant energy markets. In contrast, others leverage unique vitality infrastructure to purple meat up AI and HPC workloads, which present elevated margins and release original financing avenues.
Innovations in liquid cooling programs, chip kind, and co-divulge applied sciences additional enhance operational efficiencies.
The shift in the direction of AI and HPC has gained momentum following CoreWeave’s 700MW AI/HPC agreement in 2024, prompting several Bitcoin miners to acquire an identical earnings streams.
Bitfarms (BITF) has engaged AI/HPC consultants to assess feasibility across North American sites. At the same time, Bitdeer (BTDR) has cited ongoing discussions with AI/HPC construction partners after ending its data center consulting engagement.
Cipher Mining (CIFR) secured a $50 million investment from SoftBank in January to purple meat up its HPC data center growth. Insurgent Platforms (RIOT) expanded its board of directors to consist of journey in AI/HPC investment banking, data centers, and loyal estate.
In the period in-between, HIVE Digital Technologies (HIVE) appointed Craig Tavares as President and COO of Buzz HPC to handbook the firm’s bellow in HPC and GPU cloud companies and products.
Iris Vitality (IREN) is advancing its AI and HPC initiatives with a 75 megawatts (MW) liquid-cooled AI/HPC data center residing to delivery out in Childress, Texas, by the 2d half of of 2025.
Moreover, the firm plans to raise its Sweetwater residing with every other 600 MW. The growth will bring the total skill to 2 GW, making it one amongst North The US’s largest AI/HPC-eligible sites.
The insist eminent the rarity of such good-scale sites and emphasised their strategic merit in providing dense compute clusters crucial for AI mannequin working in the direction of and iterative workloads.
Scaling electrical skill
The pivoting to original commercial devices, equivalent to AI, has added to Bitcoin miners’ necessity to scale electrical skill.
The insist assessed 13 public Bitcoin miners, revealing a collective operational skill of seven.1 gigawatts (GW). Expansion plans project an elevate to 11.7 GW by 2025, 15.9 GW by 2026, and 20.4 GW by 2027, representing a compound annual bellow rate of 42% over three years.
A additional 7.3 GW pipeline is deliberate past 2028, though this is believed to be a conservative estimate given the competitive nature of vitality procurement in Bitcoin mining.
Scaling these operations would require predominant investment. Assuming growth by 2027 employs a modernized Bitmain Antminer S21 Execs fleet, priced at $5,000 every, alongside $450,000 per MW of supporting infrastructure, the total capital expenditure is estimated at $24.8 billion.
Nevertheless, Bitcoin miners are usually not going to commit all skill to mining since securing electrical skill has develop loyal into a key competency amid rising AI vitality demands.
Goldman Sachs estimates that AI in the intervening time consumes roughly 7.7 GW of world data center vitality utilization, accounting for 14% of the total. The figure is projected to raise to 22.7 GW (27%) by 2027.
Given this pattern, Bitcoin miners are expected to allocate 20-30% of their electrical skill to AI and HPC workloads, reflecting a strategic pivot in the direction of extra sustainable and diversified earnings streams.
