Bitcoin miners have signed over $100 billion in AI contracts but generate only $1.1 billion in annualized revenue. This pivot is driven by U.S. grid-power scarcity, where data center projects face long queues and moratoriums. While retrofitting sites for AI is capital-intensive, potential profits are three times higher than Bitcoin mining, prompting companies like Core Scientific and Keel Infrastructure to scale back or exit cryptocurrency operations to focus on AI hosting.
Bitcoin miner AI contract backlog
- ▪Ten of the 12 Bitcoin mining companies tracked by CoinShares gained between 70% and 195% in share price during the second quarter of 2026.
- ▪Bitcoin miners with contracted artificial intelligence capacity trade at an average of 12.9 times enterprise value to next-12-month sales, compared to 3.7 times for miners without agreements.
- ▪Bitcoin miners generate approximately $1.1 billion in annualized revenue from artificial intelligence contracts, with only about 550 megawatts of contracted capacity currently billing.
- ▪Publicly traded Bitcoin miners tracked by CoinShares have signed over $100 billion in artificial intelligence contracts, representing more than 4 gigawatts of capacity.
Grid-connected power scarcity
- ▪CoinShares recorded at least 225 moratoriums or restrictions on data-center development across 30 U.S. states, with 151 of those restrictions remaining in force.
- ▪A transaction cited by CoinShares valued three fully leased Northern Virginia artificial intelligence data centers at approximately $27 million per megawatt.
- ▪Projects completed in 2025 in the United States grid interconnection queue of roughly 2,600 gigawatts waited a median of more than five years to become operational.
- ▪New York has introduced a statewide pause on environmental permits for data-center facilities of 50 megawatts or more.
AI data center conversion costs
- ▪Bitcoin mining infrastructure costs roughly $700,000 to $1 million per megawatt to build, according to estimates from CoinShares.
- ▪Artificial intelligence infrastructure generates an estimated $1.5 million in annualized profit per megawatt for miners, compared to $500,000 from Bitcoin mining.
- ▪CoinShares estimates that retrofitting a Bitcoin mining site into an artificial intelligence facility costs $8 million to $15 million per megawatt.
Miner exits from Bitcoin operations
- ▪Core Scientific paid $41.9 million during the second quarter of 2026 to terminate an agreement covering approximately 15 exahashes per second of Bitcoin mining equipment.
- ▪Cipher Digital has stopped planning new mining capital expenditure and expects its Bitcoin production to become immaterial ahead of a likely exit by the end of 2027.
- ▪IREN plans to substantially complete its transition away from Bitcoin mining by December 31, 2026, after recording hundreds of millions of dollars in equipment impairments.
- ▪Keel Infrastructure, formerly Bitfarms, shut down its remaining Bitcoin mining operations on June 29, 2026, following a 194.4% share-price surge in the second quarter of 2026.
- ▪CoinShares estimates that at least 35 exahashes per second of mining capacity is scheduled to leave publicly listed miners, representing about 4.7% of the network's hashrate.
AI infrastructure buildout risk
- ▪Core Scientific is currently billing 437 megawatts of capacity, while Cipher Digital began collecting rent from its Black Pearl facility in August 2026.
- ▪IREN is targeting $4 billion in annual operating recurring revenue by December 2026.
- ▪CoinShares expects the Bitcoin mining industry's artificial intelligence and high-performance computing revenue run rate to more than double by its next report.
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