Bitcoin Miners Flip from Coin Chasers to AI Data Center Landlords
Bitcoin miners are shifting their focus from cryptocurrency production to becoming AI data center landlords. Companies like Core Scientific, TeraWulf, and Hut 8 are repurposing their sites with cheap power and finished data halls as a more profitable venture. According to Core Scientific's second-quarter results, colocation revenue reached $136.7 million, surpassing digital asset self-mining revenue by nearly sixfold.
The move is driven by the economics of Bitcoin mining. CoinShares' Q1 2026 mining report estimated that listed miners incurred a loss of roughly $19,000 per coin mined in the fourth quarter of 2025. In contrast, leasing power to AI customers with long contracts can be lucrative, with potential base contracted revenue exceeding $14 billion for Core Scientific's partnership with AMD.
Public miners are now pitching their assets as megawatts rather than hashrate. This shift is evident in the growing number of AI and HPC contracts announced across the sector, with over $70 billion in deals announced by late March. Companies like TeraWulf and Hut 8 are also repurposing their sites to support AI development, with long-term leases signed with Anthropic and other companies.
Not all miners are shifting focus, however. Bitdeer is still leaning into mining, but it's not ignoring the AI money. The company announced plans to convert its Tydal Data Center in Norway into an AI data center designed around Nvidia's Vera Rubin technology, with 180 megawatts of gross installed capacity targeted for completion by December 2026.