Bitcoin Miners' AI Shift Set in Stone Amid BTC Price Volatility

Publicly traded Bitcoin (BTC) miners that have shifted to artificial intelligence infrastructure are unlikely to reverse their decision, even if BTC prices climb further.

A Q2 mining report published by CoinShares on September 15 found that the contracts already signed make the shift structurally irreversible for most operators. Researcher Luke Nolan stated that the agreements in place effectively lock them into the AI path independent of where BTC trades.

At least 35 EH/s (exascale hashes per second) of computing power is scheduled to exit the publicly listed mining group, equivalent to approximately 4.7% of Bitcoin's current network hash rate of 750 EH/s. This represents a significant departure from traditional Bitcoin mining and highlights the financial advantage that AI infrastructure offers.

CoinShares estimates that AI infrastructure currently generates roughly $1.5 million in profit per megawatt for these companies, compared to around $500,000 per megawatt for Bitcoin mining. The three-to-one gap has driven operators to redirect their power and facilities toward computing workloads.