Bitcoin Miners Cash In on $70B in AI Contracts

Bitcoin miners have been quietly diversifying their business model by signing massive contracts for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing. The sector's cumulative announced AI and high-performance computing contracts now exceed $70B, dwarfing the combined annual mining revenue of listed miners.

This pivot is a response to the changing economics of mining, where revenue per unit of computation is cut every four years while competition climbs. Miners have long been energy arbitrageurs, securing cheap electricity and converting it into a globally tradeable asset. With AI demand driving data centre electricity consumption up by 100% by 2030, miners are leveraging their existing portfolio of secured grid connections, high-voltage infrastructure, cooling, and power purchase agreements.

Companies like Core Scientific, IREN, TeraWulf, and Hut 8 have signed massive hosting agreements with AI companies, worth tens of billions of dollars. These contracts not only provide a new revenue stream but also create optionality for miners to arbitrage between bitcoin, AI, and grid payments.

The CoinShares Bitcoin Mining ETF (WGMI) has updated its strategy to match this shift, investing at least 80% of net assets in securities of Bitcoin Mining and Digital Power Companies. The eligible universe has been widened to include operators of hyperscale data centres supporting AI, suppliers of data centre and AI components, and companies in power generation and energy infrastructure essential to data centre operations.

While convergence between bitcoin mining and AI hosting changes the risk profile of miners' equities, it also offers exposure to the buildout of AI computing capacity and the repricing of energy itself. Advisors should be aware that this sector now sits at the intersection of three key trends: bitcoin's supply dynamics, AI infrastructure demand, and the growing importance of energy.