When Core Scientific signed an agreement of $ 3.5 billion to accommodate artificial intelligence (AI) Data centers earlier this year, he did not continue the next cryptography token – he pursued a more stable salary. Formerly known for its vast fleets of Bitcoin extraction platforms, the company is now part of an increasing trend: the conversion of high-performance mining operations to high performance AI installations.
Bitcoin minors like Core, Hut 8 (HUT) and terawulf (Wulf) Exchange ASIC machines – the dedicated Bitcoin operating computer – for GPU clusters, driven by the appeal of the explosive growth of AI and the hard economy of cryptographic exploitation.
Power game
It is not a secret for anyone that Bitcoin exploitation requires a large amount of energy, which is the largest cost of reducing a new digital asset.
Back in the 2021 bull, when the hashrate and the difficulty of the Bitcoin network were weak, minors made bandits with margins up to 90%. Then came brutal Crypto Winter and the event by half, which reduced the mining reward in two. In 2025, with an increase in the prices of hash and energy, minors now have trouble surviving with thin margins like razors.
However, the need for energy – the biggest cost of inputs – has become a disguised blessing for these minors, who needed a different strategy to diversify their sources of income.
Due to the increase in competition for mining, minors continued to get more machines to stay afloat, and with it came the need for more electricity megawatts at a cheaper price. Minors invested massively in the securing of these low -cost energy sources, such as hydroelectric or blocked natural gas sites, and have developed expertise in the management of high density cooling and electric systems – refined children during the cryptographic boom in the early 2020s.
This is what attracted the attention of AI and Cloud Computing companies. While Bitcoin is based on specialized ASICs, AI is spreading on versatile GPUs such as the H100 series from NVIDIA, which require similar high power environments but for parallel treatment tasks in automatic learning. Instead of building data centers from scratch, taking charge of mining infrastructure, which is already ready to be able, has become a faster way to develop an increasing appetite for AI -related infrastructure.
Essentially, these minors do not only rotate – they renovate.
Cooling systems, low -cost energy contracts and the dense power infrastructure they built during the cryptographic boom is now used a new objective: to supply business AI models like OPENAI and Google.
Companies like Crusoe Energy have sold mining assets to focus solely on AI, deploying GPU clusters in distant and energy -rich places that reflect decentralized crypto ethics but now centralized fuel hyperscalers.
AI Terraforming
The Bitcoin infrastructure has actually “terraced” the AI calculation field by building an evolutionary and powerful infrastructure that AI is desperately needed.
As Nicholas Gregory, director of the Board of Directors of Frarantrity, noted, “we can say that Bitcoin has paved the way for digital dollars payments as we can see with USDT / TETHER. It also looks like Bitcoin TERROVED data centers for the AI / GPU compute.” “”
This preexisting “terraforming” allows minors to quickly modernize installations, often in less than a year, compared to deadlines for constructions of traditional data centers. Companies like Crusoe Energy have sold mining assets to focus solely on AI, deploying GPU clusters in distant and energy -rich places that reflect decentralized crypto ethics but now centralized fuel hyperscalers.
Higher yields
In practice, this means that minors can return an installation in less than a year, faster than the multi -year calendar of a new data center.
But AI is not a cheap upgrade.
Bitcoin exploration configurations are relatively modest, with costs ranging from $ 300,000 to $ 800,000 per megawatt (MW) Excluding the ASIC, allowing rapid scalability in response to market cycles. Meanwhile, the AI infrastructure requires a much higher CAPEX due to the need for advanced liquid cooling, redundant food systems and GPUs themselves, which can cost tens of thousands per unit and cope with global supply shortages. Despite the highest initial costs, the AI offers minors up to 25 times more income per kilowattheurers than bitcoin extraction, which makes the pivot economically convincing in the rise in energy prices and the drop in cryptographic profitability.
A niche industry is worth billions
While AI continues to appear and cryptographic benefits tightening, Bitcoin exploitation could become a niche game – a reserve for energy -rich regions or very effective players, especially since the next in 2028 could make many operations not profitable without power in terms of efficiency or energy costs.
While projections show that the global crypto mining market has $ 3.3 billion by 2030, with a modest TCAC of 6.9%, the billions would be overshadowed by the exponential expansion of the AI. According to KBV Research, the world AI on the mining market is expected to reach $ 435.94 billion by 2032, extending to an annual growth rate composed (Cagr) 40.6%.
Investors already seeing signs in dollars in this change, the broader trend suggests that the future is either a hybrid or a complete conversion to AI, where stable contracts with hyperscalers promise longevity on the Boom-Bust cycles of crypto.
This evolution reuses not only inactive active ingredients, but also emphasizes how yesterday’s cryptographic boundaries forge the empires of the AI of tomorrow.
