Texas Audit Tests Value of Bitcoin Miners' AI Pipelines
Texas Governor Greg Abbott has ordered an audit of all data center projects seeking grid connection in response to concerns over power demand and water usage. The order affects around 474 GW of pending connection requests, with about 90% coming from data centers.
The audit will verify each project's power sourcing, water use, cooling plans, and ownership. This move puts AI infrastructure tied to Bitcoin miners under scrutiny, as they have been pitching investors on multi-gigawatt pipelines in recent months.
One such miner, Hut 8, has a significant lead in de-risked assets with its River Bend and Beacon Point sites, which are contracted, financed, and under construction. The company's pipeline includes 949 MW of contracted IT capacity worth around $26.6 billion in expected base-term contract value.
Other miners, however, face uncertainty due to ERCOT's batch review process. Cipher Digital's, CleanSpark's, and MARA's less mature sites carry the risk of being stalled for longer than developers can fund them.