A recent Vaneck report shows that Bitcoin (BTC) miners are increasingly shifting towards artificial intelligence (AI) and high performance computing (HPC) as transaction fee revenues remain inconsistent I’m doing it.
The company is likely to see network congestion lead to a temporary surge in fees, but it has led to increased off-chain solutions such as Exchange Sales Funds (ETFs), Futures Markets and Layer 2, which has led to long-term on-chain revenue growth. said it remains uncertain. L2) Solutions, and centralized exchange.
The price of BTC needs to double to maintain revenue levels, so the block gets rewarded every four years, so Bitcoin miners need to adapt. This dynamic underscores the importance of pivoting AI and HPC as a diversification strategy.
Pivot movement
A successful Bitcoin Miner integrates alternative strategies to optimize revenue streams.
Some use mining to subsidize grid expansion in remote energy markets. in contrast, Others leverage existing power infrastructure to support AI and HPC workloads. This provides a higher margin and unlocks new funding means.
Innovations in liquid cooling systems, chip designs and colocation technology further improve operational efficiency.
The shift to AI and HPC gained momentum following CoreWeave’s 700MW AI/HPC contract in 2024, urging several Bitcoin miners to explore similar revenue streams.
BitFarms (BITF) is involved in AI/HPC consultants to assess feasibility across North American sites. At the same time, Bitdeer (BTDR) cited ongoing discussions with AI/HPC development partners after completing the data center consulting engagement.
Cipher Mining (CIFR) secured a $50 million investment from SoftBank in January to support the expansion of its HPC data centers. Riot Platforms (Riot) has expanded its board of directors to include expertise in AI/HPC investment banks, data centers and real estate.
Meanwhile, Hive Digital Technologies (HIVE) appointed Craig Tavares as president and COO of Buzz HPC, leading the growth of the HPC and GPU cloud services company.
Iris Energy (Iren) is working on AI and HPC initiatives with its 75 megawatt (MW) liquefied AI/HPC data center set to be launched in Childress, Texas by the second half of 2025.
Additionally, the company plans to expand its sweetwater site at an additional 600 MW. This expansion brings total capacity to 2 GW, making it one of North America’s largest AI/HPC-qualified sites.
The report highlighted the rarity of such large sites and highlighted the strategic advantage of providing dense computational clusters essential for AI model training and iterative workloads.
Capacitance Scaling
Pivoting to new business models such as AI has added the need for Bitcoin miners to increase electrical capacity.
The report assessed 13 public Bitcoin miners and revealed a collective operational capability of 7.1 Gigawatts (GW). The expansion plan has increased to 11.7 GW by 2025, 15.9 GW by 2026 and 20.4 GW by 2027, representing a combined annual growth rate of 42% over three years.
An additional 7.3 GW pipeline is planned since 2028, which is considered a conservative estimate given the competitiveness of power procurement in Bitcoin mining.
Scaling these operations requires a significant investment. Assuming that the expansion through 2027 will employ a modernized Bitmain Antminer S21 pro fleet, with a support infrastructure of $450,000 per MW, at a price of $5,000 each, then the total capital expenditure will be 248. It is estimated to be $100 million.
However, Bitcoin miners rarely devote all their capabilities to mining, as it has become a critical ability to ensure electrical capabilities amid growing demand for AI.
Goldman Sachs estimates that AI currently consumes approximately 7.7 GW of electricity usage in its global data center, accounting for 14% of the total. This figure is projected to increase to 22.7 GW (27%) by 2027.
Given this trend, Bitcoin miners are expected to allocate 20-30% of their electrical capacity to AI and HPC workloads, reflecting their strategic pivots on more sustainable and diverse revenue streams. Masu.
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