Bitcoin miners are abandoning crypto on behalf of artificial intelligence.
Every major US-listed Bitcoin miner has pivoted toward AI data centres over maximising Bitcoin upside, according to Bernstein analysts.
“Bitcoin miners are now an integral part of the AI value chain, providing warm powered shells for AI data centres — considered the biggest bottleneck to execution,” Gautam Chhugani and three other Bernstein analysts wrote in a November 3 report.
Bernstein also upgraded price targets across the board for miners embracing AI, with Core Scientific jumping to $24 from $17, Riot climbing to $25 from $19, and CleanSpark rising to $24 from $20.
Existential woes
But what’s behind the move to AI? Well, there’s the troubling fact that Bitcoin mining has become deeply unprofitable.
Miners have dealt with existential woes ever since last year’s halving slashed the rewards for validating Bitcoin transactions in half.
Dwindling network activity, a loss of half of their revenue source, and a soaring network difficulty has made their lives much harder.
“It is grim for miners right now,” Nick Hansen, CEO of mining outlet Luxor, previously told DL News.
The math is brutal. Companies that could previously mine Bitcoin profitably at $50,000 per coin now struggle at $100,000.
Meanwhile, capital costs have soared, while building out mining capacity requires massive upfront investment in ASICs and infrastructure, with payback periods that stretch years into the future.
Still, the pivot isn’t new. VanEck already predicted the shift in 2024, forecasting that if the 12 major public miners shifted just 20% of their operations to AI, they would receive a nearly $14 billion bump to their annual profits.
AI escape hatch
Rather than fight a losing battle, miners are converting their most valuable asset — access to cheap, abundant power — into AI data centre capacity.
Core Scientific contracted 590MW to CoreWeave for 12 years, expected to generate $10 billion in revenue. IREN is targeting over $500 million in annualised revenue from AI cloud services by early 2026, up from just $28 million in Q2 2025.
Even CleanSpark, previously committed to pure Bitcoin mining, appointed a senior VP for AI data centres in October.
Bitcoin miners now control over 14GW of power capacity globally. Instead of pointing that power at Bitcoin ASICs earning diminishing returns, they’re leasing it to hyperscalers and neocloud players desperate for data center space.
“Bitcoin miners with active AI contracts trade at roughly $6 million per planned megawatt,” Bernstein noted. “That’s double the $3 million per megawatt for pure-play Bitcoin miners.”
Wall Street has caught on. Analysts now value miners primarily on their power assets and AI contracts — not their Bitcoin mining operations.
Riot’s 1GW Corsicana site in Texas contributes $3 billion to Bernstein’s $9 billion enterprise value target, despite generating zero revenue today. Core Scientific’s AI business segment contributes 86% of Bernstein’s enterprise value estimate. Its legacy Bitcoin mining? Just 14%.
Indeed, the message from Wall Street is clear: power beats Bitcoin.
