Bitcoin Miners Abandon Rigs for AI and HPC

The Bitcoin mining industry is undergoing a significant shift as miners abandon their rigs to focus on artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC). Keel, a listed miner formerly known as Bitfarms, has switched off its last mining sites in June, becoming the first listed miner to reach zero. This move will book no mining revenue for the third quarter, with the cost of winding down affecting its gross margin, now at a negative 285%.

Others are paying to exit the market. Core Scientific handed over $41.9 million to Block's Proto division to cancel about 15 exahashes per second of next-generation 3nm mining chips. Cipher Digital also announced it will not be spending on mining capital expenditure and expects to be out of the business by the end of 2027.

Hyperscale Data cut power to its Bitcoin miners at a Michigan facility to ready it for an AI colocation tenant, with a $1.2 billion deal over ten years, potentially worth up to $3 billion with an option for another 32 megawatts.