"Bitcoin Miners Turn to AI and HPC for Revenue Diversification"

Bitcoin miners in the U.S. are increasingly exploring artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) as a means to diversify their revenue streams, according to a recent report by VanEck. The shift comes as transaction fee revenues remain inconsistent, and miners seek to adapt to the halving of block rewards every four years.

The report highlights the uncertainty surrounding long-term on-chain revenue growth, as off-chain solutions such as exchange-traded funds (ETFs), futures markets, layer-2 (L2) solutions, and centralized exchanges gain traction. As a result, successful Bitcoin miners are integrating alternative strategies to optimize revenue streams.

Some miners are leveraging their mining operations to subsidize grid expansion in remote energy markets, while others are utilizing existing power infrastructure to support AI and HPC workloads, which offer higher margins and unlock new financing avenues. Innovations in liquid cooling systems, chip design, and co-location technologies further improve operational efficiencies.

The shift toward AI and HPC has gained momentum following CoreWeave's 700MW AI/HPC agreement in 2024. Several Bitcoin miners, including Bitfarms (BITF), Bitdeer (BTDR), Cipher Mining (CIFR), Riot Platforms (RIOT), and HIVE Digital Technologies (HIVE), have engaged in similar revenue streams or expanded their expertise in AI and HPC.

Iris Energy (IREN) is advancing its AI and HPC initiatives with a 75 megawatts (MW) liquid-cooled AI/HPC data center set to launch in Childress, Texas, by the second half of 2025. The company also plans to expand its Sweetwater site with another 600 MW, bringing the total capacity to 2 GW, making it one of North America's largest AI/HPC-eligible sites.

The report notes the rarity of such large-scale sites and emphasizes their strategic advantage in providing dense compute clusters essential for AI model training and iterative workloads. The pivoting to new business models, such as AI, has added to Bitcoin miners' necessity to scale electrical capacity.

The report assessed 13 public Bitcoin miners, revealing a collective operational capacity of 7.1 gigawatts (GW). Expansion plans project an increase to 11.7 GW by 2025, 15.9 GW by