The $3.5B shift: How Bitcoin miners are cashing in on AI

Why Bitcoiners turned to AI

The 2024 Bitcoin halving reduced artifact rewards to 3.125 BTC, cutting miners’ income successful half. This change, combined with higher energy costs, costly instrumentality attraction and accrued competition, made traditional mining little profitable. Many mining companies struggled to support their nett margins and began exploring different gross sources.

Although Bitcoin mining relies connected devices called ASICs, mining companies person entree to energy-dense information centers and powerfulness infrastructure. As request for AI compute skyrockets, galore miners are repurposing oregon upgrading their facilities with GPUs to enactment AI training and inference workloads. 

However, artificial quality demands immense computing power, particularly for training ample connection models, powering autonomous systems and moving endeavor AI tools. 

As tech companies contention to unafraid high-performance infrastructure, Bitcoin mining firms are stepping in. Leveraging their existing energy-intensive information centers and upgrading with GPUs, galore miners person begun offering AI unreality services oregon renting retired spare capacity. This diversification allows them to make steady, non-crypto income streams, reducing reliance connected volatile Bitcoin (BTC) revenues.

This displacement offsets the impact of Bitcoin halving and has led to much profitable and unchangeable gross streams.

Did you know? AI workloads and Bitcoin mining some request monolithic energy. By readying for both, miners tin lease excess capableness to AI firms, particularly during crypto downturns, turning stranded powerfulness into a unchangeable currency flow.

Case study: Core Scientific’s $3.5 cardinal lifeline

Core Scientific is simply a beardown illustration of however shifting to AI tin assistance a struggling Bitcoin mining institution recover. After facing fiscal difficulties and filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy successful precocious 2022 owed to debased Bitcoin prices and dense debt, the institution restructured and returned to the Nasdaq successful aboriginal 2024. 

In June 2024, Core Scientific signed a 12-year, $3.5 cardinal declaration with CoreWeave, an AI unreality computing company. The statement allowed Core Scientific to usage parts of its infrastructure to enactment CoreWeave’s high-performance computing needs, moving distant from solely mining Bitcoin to besides providing AI services.

Although the company’s gross successful the archetypal 4th of 2025 fell to $79.5 cardinal from $179.3 cardinal the erstwhile year, the AI strategy boosted capitalist confidence. The company’s banal terms roseate aft the CoreWeave woody was announced, reflecting marketplace enactment for its caller direction.

By mid-2025, CoreWeave restarted talks to get Core Scientific, pursuing an unsuccessful $1 cardinal connection the twelvemonth before. This renewed involvement highlights however the company’s absorption connected AI cushioned the interaction of Bitcoin’s halving and positioned it arsenic a cardinal subordinate successful the increasing AI computing industry.

Hut 8’s AI broadside hustle

Hut 8 has added AI arsenic a secondary root of income portion continuing to prioritize Bitcoin mining. This concern exemplary combines stableness and maturation imaginable done a five-year declaration that includes fixed payments and a revenue-sharing component, ensuring dependable income with opportunities for further net based connected lawsuit success.

In September 2024, the institution launched Highrise AI, a subsidiary offering GPU-as-a-Service utilizing implicit 1,000 Nvidia H100 chips, specialized hardware for grooming and moving precocious AI models. This determination marked Hut 8’s authoritative introduction into the high-performance computing (HPC) market.

Despite its AI venture, Hut 8 remains dedicated to Bitcoin mining. In the archetypal 4th of 2025, it mined 167 BTC, a alteration from 716 BTC successful the aforesaid play of 2024, mostly owed to the 2024 Bitcoin halving. The institution continues to put successful its mining infrastructure, supported by its important Bitcoin reserve of 10,273 BTC, making it the ninth-largest firm Bitcoin holder worldwide.

For Hut 8, AI serves arsenic a complementary strategy, diversifying its gross portion keeping Bitcoin mining arsenic the halfway of its semipermanent plan.

How are hybrid models gaining traction: Hive and Iren

As Bitcoin mining profits shrink, hybrid models combining mining with AI compute are gaining ground. Companies similar Hive and Iren are proving that it is imaginable to turn AI gross without abandoning their Bitcoin roots. They are diversifying income portion optimizing existing infrastructure.

Hive Digital Technologies

Formerly known arsenic Hive Blockchain, the institution rebranded successful mid-2023 to bespeak its broader high-performance computing ambitions. Hive invested $30 cardinal to deploy Nvidia-powered GPU clusters, marking a decisive pivot toward AI workloads. 

This concern began to wage disconnected quickly. In fiscal 2025, Hive’s AI and HPC hosting gross tripled to $10.1 million, astir 9% of its full revenue. Looking ahead, Hive has acceptable an ambitious people of $100 cardinal successful AI gross by 2026, signaling a beardown committedness to expanding its hybrid model.

Iren (Iris Energy)

Australian mining steadfast Iren began its AI travel successful aboriginal 2024 with conscionable 248 GPUs, and by mid-2025, it had scaled up to much than 4,300 units. The firm’s hybrid exemplary is already generating results, mining 1,514 BTC successful Q3 FY2025 portion pulling successful $3.6 cardinal from AI unreality services. To enactment this growth, Iren is gathering AI-focused information centers successful Texas and British Columbia. 

Still, the institution faces a challenge: A class-action suit filed successful October 2024 alleges it misled investors astir the operational readiness of its Texas facility, casting a shadiness implicit its different promising expansion.

How large Bitcoin miners are preparing for AI: Riot Platforms and MARA Holdings

While immoderate Bitcoin miners person already begun earning gross from AI, others are gathering foundations for aboriginal AI opportunities. Riot Platforms and MARA Holdings, 2 starring companies successful the mining industry, are strategically readying for AI integration portion maintaining their absorption connected Bitcoin mining.

Riot Platforms

Exploring AI possibilities, Riot Platforms has started assessing the imaginable to person 600 megawatts astatine its Corsicana, Texas, installation into high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure. Although Riot has not yet secured important AI contracts, its Corsicana site, covering 355 acres, has the capableness to enactment up to 1 gigawatt of computing power, giving it a decisive advantage. 

Financially, Riot remains robust successful its superior business, having mined 1,530 BTC and earned $142.9 cardinal successful mining gross successful the archetypal 4th of 2025. The institution besides holds 19,225 BTC (as of July 17, 2025), 1 of the largest firm Bitcoin reserves worldwide.

MARA Holdings

MARA possesses the astir extended Bitcoin treasury among mining companies, with 50,000 BTC, 2nd lone to Strategy among nationalist companies. Its AI strategy focuses connected borderline computing, including processing its MARA 2PIC700 immersion cooling system, designed to grip intensive computing tasks. 

While MARA has the infrastructure ready, its AI efforts person not yet resulted successful important contracts oregon accordant revenue. For now, a determination into AI remains a forward-looking strategy with imaginable for aboriginal growth.

Did you know? Bitcoin mining relies connected ASICs, but AI needs GPUs similar Nvidia’s H100s. Some miners are present retrofitting information centers with GPUs to enactment AI clients, creating dual-purpose infrastructure that balances some blockchain and AI demands.

An outlier case: Canaan’s retreat from AI

While galore Bitcoin mining companies are exploring AI to broaden their income sources, Canaan has taken a antithetic approach. 

In July 2025, the institution closed its AI spot division, stepping distant from the high-performance computing sector. This determination reflects a renewed absorption connected its superior expertise: designing application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) for Bitcoin mining.

Instead of pursuing the increasing AI market, Canaan is advancing its mining hardware to support a competitory edge. Still, it holds lone 2.1% of the planetary ASIC market, acold down starring competitors similar Bitmain and MicroBT.

By prioritizing mining-focused hardware and strengthening its beingness successful markets similar North America, Canaan is adopting a unsocial strategy erstwhile others are shifting toward AI. The semipermanent occurrence of this attack is yet to beryllium determined.

Did you know? AI firms look unit to spell green. Bitcoin miners that already usage renewable energy, similar hydro oregon solar, tin pull AI clients looking to conscionable sustainability targets done cleanable colocation deals.

Key risks and considerations for miners entering the AI marketplace

As Bitcoin miners progressively displacement to AI, this modulation offers opportunities and important risks. Miners indispensable cautiously see the following:

• Infrastructure costs vs returns: Moving from ASIC-based mining to GPU-based AI systems requires important archetypal investment. Miners indispensable guarantee that the imaginable semipermanent gross outweighs these costs.
• Client stability: AI clients, peculiarly startups, whitethorn deficiency accordant backing oregon semipermanent reliability. Miners should cautiously measure clients to debar outgo defaults oregon work interruptions.
• Power proviso reliability: AI operations request continuous, high-energy usage. Miners indispensable unafraid stable, semipermanent powerfulness agreements and show section grid capableness to forestall outages oregon abrupt terms increases.
• Cooling and thermal management: AI chips, specified arsenic Nvidia H100s, nutrient important heat. Inadequate cooling systems tin pb to instrumentality failures oregon reduced efficiency.
• Regulatory compliance: Hosting AI workloads whitethorn impact analyzable regulations related to data privacy, intelligence property, planetary information hosting, vigor use, h2o depletion and carbon emissions. Miners indispensable beryllium prepared to navigate these rules.
• Market competition: As much miners participate the AI colocation market, pricing could decline. Early entrants should found advantages, specified arsenic strategical locations, debased vigor costs oregon large-scale operations.
• Resource strain: Expanding into AI portion maintaining mining operations whitethorn overstretch fiscal and absorption resources.