Are Bitcoin Miners Now Abandoning BTC to Work on Artificial Intelligence? Industry Members Respond

Shares of the large-scale mining companies that power the Bitcoin network are once again outperforming BTC itself, driven by the companies' increasing shift toward hybrid models centered on artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC).

These companies, once called “miners” in analogy with mining traditional commodities like gold, have long been vulnerable to wild swings in the price of Bitcoin. The sector, which benefited from the first wave of the AI boom in 2023, saw its stock decline the following year as profits plummeted and competition intensified.

However, the landscape has changed in 2025. Despite the crypto market's decline in recent weeks, Bitcoin is up 14% this year and is close to the record high of $126,000 reached at the beginning of the month. The Trump administration's pro-cryptocurrency policies during its second term have revived investors' interest in Bitcoin.

Yet, the real winners this year haven't been BTC, but rather mining companies. An index tracking mining companies has risen over 150% since the beginning of the year. Experts say investors are now viewing these companies not simply as miners but as “technology infrastructure companies.”

“Investors are currently evaluating Bitcoin miners almost entirely on HPC and AI opportunities. Less than 10% of the topics we discuss are related to Bitcoin mining,” said John Todaro, an analyst at Needham & Co.

Among the most prominent examples of this transformation are Cipher Mining and IREN. Shares of the two Nasdaq-listed companies have risen by 300% and 500%, respectively, this year. At the beginning of the year, Cipher signed a 10-year, approximately $3 billion collaboration agreement with Google-backed Fluidstack. Under the agreement, Fluidstack received $1.4 billion in lease guarantees in exchange for a 5.4% equity option. This agreement is being interpreted as one of the clearest indicators of the growing intertwining of crypto mining and AI computing.

Singapore-based Bitdeer Technologies Group surged nearly 30% on Wednesday. The company plans to convert several mining sites, including its 570-megawatt Clarington facility in Ohio, into AI data centers. Bitdeer said this transformation could generate over $2 billion in annual revenue by the end of 2026 in a best-case scenario.

“AI and HPC are not replacing mining; they are complementing it. We will transform by selecting facilities whose profitability is sustainable over the long term,” said Jeff LaBerge, vice president of capital markets and strategy at Bitdeer.

This strategic shift by miners accelerated after the Bitcoin halving in 2024. The decrease in the reward per block from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC, combined with increased network difficulty and decreasing transaction volumes, severely narrowed profit margins.

TheMinerMag analyst Wolfie Zhao noted that many companies are now turning to more efficient use of existing energy capacity rather than increasing hash rate, saying, “Companies like Riot Platforms, IREN, and Bitfarms aren't planning to increase their hash power in the near term. The focus has shifted from 'how much hash can we add' to 'how efficiently can we use energy'.”

“Revenue per megawatt and EBITDA margins are much higher in AI and HPC compared to mining,” said Needham analyst Todaro. “Due to Bitcoin's volatility and halving risks, capital markets are now valuing AI-focused data centers much higher than traditional miners.”