Seven of the highest ten miners by hashrate report AI or high-performance computing initiatives already producing income, with the opposite three planning to observe swimsuit.
The shift pairs miners’ energized land and interconnections with contracted income from GPU prospects, making a second line of enterprise that competes with operating ASICs at full energy.
AI partnerships redefine mining economics and investor focus
TeraWulf set the reference level after signing two 10-year internet hosting agreements with Fluidstack, totaling roughly 200 MW at Lake Mariner.
In response to Barron’s, Google is backing a portion of Fluidstack’s lease obligations, as much as roughly $ 1.8 billion, and has obtained warrants that might equate to roughly 8 p.c of TeraWulf. The disclosed deal math implies roughly $1.85 million per MW per 12 months of headline income over the time period, which many miners now use as a benchmark when courting AI tenants.
Core Scientific expanded a 12-year relationship with CoreWeave for about 70 MW of extra HPC capability, with operations focused for the second half of 2025. Bitdeer continues to function a business AI cloud based mostly on NVIDIA DGX techniques, whereas Iris Vitality stories an AI cloud enterprise operating on H100 and H200 GPUs.
Others are constructing the true property for the subsequent wave. CleanSpark mentioned on October 29 it secured 271 acres and about 285 MW of long-term energy in Texas for what it calls a next-generation AI and HPC campus. Marathon agreed in August to amass 64 p.c of Exaion, an EDF subsidiary, to broaden its international AI and HPC capabilities, with an choice to extend its stake to 75 p.c by 2027.
Riot has been assessing the conversion of roughly 600 MW at Corsicana for AI or HPC and has paused a part of its mining growth, leading to a discount of year-end 2025 hashrate steering from 46.7 EH/s to 38.4 EH/s. Bitfarms has employed consultants to conduct a feasibility examine and has been advertising and marketing its websites to AI shoppers.
Cipher Mining is reported to have a multi-year Fluidstack association with a Google-linked lease dedication, though not all phrases are disclosed in a single major submitting. Abu Dhabi’s Phoenix Group has signaled plans to scale data-center capability past 1 GW, with an AI focus, and is exploring a U.S. itemizing to fund the growth.
The financial case rests on energy and predictability.
Utilizing in the present day’s community context of about 1.08 to 1.10 ZH/s and 144 blocks per day with charges which have ranged from roughly 0.3 to 2.0 BTC per block, one MW of contemporary ASICs at about 17 J/TH interprets to about 0.059 EH/s of hashrate.
That share of the community earns roughly $ 1.0 to $ 1.6 million per MW per 12 months in gross mining income earlier than energy and opex, at a bitcoin worth of almost $104,000, based on CoinWarz knowledge for worth and hashrate. The midpoint of that vary, round 1.2 to 1.3 million {dollars}, trails the 1.85 million {dollars} per MW per 12 months implied by TeraWulf’s AI contracts.
Energy worth, capital expenditure (capex), and utilization decide margins in both mannequin. Nonetheless, the contracted nature of AI internet hosting has change into a key function for fairness traders in search of steadier money flows slightly than pure publicity to threat and charges.
Macro demand for data-center energy offers the backdrop. McKinsey charts present U.S. data-center electrical energy consumption might attain about 606 TWh by 2030 as AI workloads scale. ERCOT tasks file peak demand over the subsequent 5 years, with knowledge facilities a major issue, as analyses point out roughly 35 GW of peak data-center load by 2035.
Utilities are adjusting, with American Electrical Energy growing its five-year capital plan to $ 72 billion as it really works by way of a pipeline of customer-backed contracts and greater than 190 GW of load requests in improvement, based on Reuters. These numbers align with miners’ pitch that their grid ties, substations, and land banks are actually scarce inputs for AI campuses, not only for exahash.
This realignment adjustments what issues contained in the mining league desk.
A miner that directs new megawatts towards AI might file decrease headline hashrate progress than a pure-play operation. But, its enterprise worth can enhance by way of contracted income, energy optionality, and longer-dated agreements.
Core Scientific’s additions with CoreWeave put a 12-year stamp on the mannequin. CleanSpark’s 285 MW plan and Marathon’s Exaion buy push miners towards proudly owning and working mixed-use campuses the place GPUs, miners, and typically customary colocation can share infrastructure. Riot’s public analysis of 600 MW at Corsicana demonstrates how rapidly the combo can change when a web site already has transformers, switchgear, water rights, and fiber infrastructure in place.
There are constraints. ERCOT interconnection timelines, gasoline turbine availability for brand new peakers, and transformer lead occasions all dictate how rapidly high-density halls may be energized. GPU provide stays a swing issue as Blackwell and successor elements ramp and as hyperscalers allocate stock to inside builds.
On the crypto facet, any shift in charge regimes that materially lifts charges per block can shut a few of the per-MW income hole between mining and AI internet hosting. A transfer of about 0.5 BTC per block in sustained common charges is value roughly $ 0.2 to $ 0.3 million per MW per 12 months in miner gross income at present worth ranges, based mostly on the easy share-of-network math above.
Buyers are watching the composition of income, slightly than simply the exahash.
Contracted AI megawatts and {dollars} per MW per 12 months have gotten the brand new disclosures to trace. The $1.5 to $2.0 million per MW per 12 months vary is rising as a sensible benchmark for high-density internet hosting within the U.S., with TeraWulf’s disclosed determine serving as a present reference.
Utility capex plans and interconnection queue updates are actually as related to miner outlooks as ASIC supply schedules. As U.S. spot energy tightens, miners with already energized land, permitted pads, and spare substations can monetize that optionality sooner than greenfield entrants.
The worldwide angle provides heft. Marathon’s transfer with Exaion ties a U.S. miner to an EDF affiliate contained in the French energy system, aligning GPU internet hosting with state-adjacent power belongings.
Phoenix Group’s plan to scale within the Gulf, whereas weighing a U.S. itemizing, places sovereign energy economics into the combo for AI infrastructure.
These constructions might pull extra miners into joint ventures the place utilities or power traders anchor long-term contracts in return for capability rights, precedence interconnects, or fairness stakes.
For crypto fundamentals, the pivot might gradual the speed at which community hashrate expands by way of 2026 if materials parts of latest energy are routed to GPUs as an alternative of ASICs. The community will nonetheless add hash as new websites come on-line and as older fleets refresh, but the slope can flatten relative to the final surge.
That may not cease capital from coming into mining, as excessive bitcoin costs and charge spikes can nonetheless enhance returns; nevertheless, it makes the hashrate leaderboard a weaker proxy for fairness worth than it was in prior cycles.
Beneath is a concise snapshot of the place the biggest listed miners stand in the present day. Standing displays whether or not AI/HPC is already producing income or continues to be within the planning or analysis phases, based mostly on firm disclosures and mainstream reporting.
Bitcoin MinerHashrate (EH/s)% of World NetworkAI/HPC InvolvementStatusMarathon Digital Holdings57.45.3percentAcquiring 64% of EDF’s Exaion to broaden AI/HPC infrastructureRevenueCleanSpark50.04.6percentBuilding 285 MW AI/HPC data-centre campus in Texas (contracts underneath improvement)RevenueIris Vitality (IREN)45.44.2percentOperating renewable-powered GPU AI cloud clusters with H100/H200 systemsRevenueRiot Platforms36.53.4percentEvaluating AI/HPC repurpose of 600 MW Corsicana facility (paused mining growth)PlanningBitdeer Technologies35.03.2percentRunning business AI cloud service utilizing NVIDIA DGX H100/H200 GPUsRevenueCipher Mining23.62.2percentReported multi-year AI data-centre leases (AWS & Fluidstack, ~$8.5 B whole)RevenueCore Scientific19.11.8percentHosting AI/ML workloads for CoreWeave underneath 12-year contract (~70 MW)RevenueBitfarms19.51.8percentConducting HPC/AI conversion feasibility with Appleby Technique GroupPlanningTeraWulf12.81.2percentSigned 10-year AI internet hosting contracts (> 200 MW, Google-backed Fluidstack)RevenuePhoenix Group*15.0 *1.9% *Increasing towards 1 GW hybrid data-centre capability for AI/HPC by 2027 (deliberate)Planning
What to look at now’s easy and measurable. Monitor contracted AI megawatts and {dollars} per MW per 12 months in new filings, utility capex trajectories, and ERCOT load revisions, and thirty-day averages for bitcoin charges relative to the subsidy utilizing sources like CoinWarz.
These knowledge factors will let you know how a lot mining energy shifts to GPUs, how rapidly campuses energize, and the way the per-MW income hole evolves. The most important miners are already executing on that playbook.
