- Bitcoin miners now control over 27GW of planned US power capacity as AI firms struggle.
- Bernstein said miners have already signed more than $90B in AI-related agreements.
- IREN, Riot Platforms, and Core Scientific are shifting beyond mining and into AI hosting.
Bitcoin mining firms are moving deeper into AI infrastructure as large tech companies struggle to secure electricity for new data centers.
Wall Street firms now see power access as the main advantage miners hold, especially after the 2024 Bitcoin halving reduced mining margins and forced companies to search for new revenue sources.
Bernstein estimates publicly traded Bitcoin miners now control more than 27 gigawatts of planned power capacity across the United States.
The bank also said miners have already announced over $90 billion in AI-related agreements tied to roughly 3.7 gigawatts of infrastructure capacity.
The transition gained attention after reports that Google and Blackstone are building a new AI cloud business around Google’s TPU chips. Blackstone is expected to invest $5 billion in the project while keeping the majority ownership.
The venture plans to bring 500 megawatts of capacity online by 2027, while total investment tied to financing could reportedly reach $25 billion.
Power Access Has Become the Main AI Bottleneck
AI firms are now facing delays in securing sufficient electricity to support large computing clusters. Bernstein said getting a single gigawatt connected to the grid can take more than four years in many US states.
The firm noted that median waiting times for grid approval now sit near 50 months. Even Texas, one of the largest data center markets in the country, has moved to batch-style reviews to manage overloaded interconnection queues.
This delay changes the value of Bitcoin miners. Most already operate large industrial sites with existing grid access, cooling systems, substations, and high-density computing infrastructure. Building those systems from scratch now takes years.
RAND previously estimated the United States may add around 82 gigawatts of net available power capacity by 2030. AI demand is now competing directly for that supply.
Regulatory pressure is also slowing traditional data center development as large projects increasingly face environmental reviews, local political resistance, and land approval issues.
Mining companies already operating industrial-scale facilities avoid part of that process because their sites are already active.
Mining Firms Push Into AI Hosting and Cloud Deals
Several miners have already started repositioning their businesses around AI hosting and high-performance computing.
IREN has become one of the biggest names tied to the transition. Bernstein said the company is well-placed to redirect a large part of its operations toward AI infrastructure after securing multibillion-dollar agreements with Microsoft and Nvidia.
One Nvidia-linked agreement reportedly carried a total value of $3.4 billion, including a $2.1 billion equity commitment tied to GPU deployment.
Riot Platforms has also discussed AI colocation opportunities and signed agreements linked to AMD infrastructure. Core Scientific expanded hosting arrangements with AI cloud firm CoreWeave, while HUT 8 secured separate cloud-related deals.
Soluna Holdings recently showed how quickly the business mix is changing. The company reported first-quarter revenue growth of 58%, driven mainly by data center hosting revenue instead of crypto mining.
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