The economics of crypto mining are shifting. Rising prices, significantly for electrical energy and the computational hash fee for cryptocurrencies corresponding to Bitcoin, make the mining business much less worthwhile.
Crypto mining firms are shifting to AI consequently. Why? For starters, AI coaching may present a safer and extra constant income than the unstable crypto business.
Why Crypto and AI Firms Are Providing The Greatest Returns On Wall Avenue
The crypto market’s inherent volatility makes income unpredictable.
In distinction, AI knowledge facilities provide recurring revenues, which have excessive development and constantly excessive revenue margins.
In the meantime, Bitcoin’s 2024 halving reduce mining rewards in half. That pressured mining firms to reassess their enterprise fashions.
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Proper now, the economics are compelling. AI knowledge facilities provide dramatically higher returns on the identical infrastructure. They will generate as much as 25 occasions extra income per kilowatt-hour than conventional crypto mining operations.
Additionally, crypto mining firms stand in a powerful place to learn from AI demand.
They’ve energy agreements, knowledge heart areas, agreements for low-cost electrical energy – a strong recipe for assembly at present’s AI demand.
Extra importantly, by shifting to serving AI wants, crypto mining firms can profit from a better market valuation because the AI story performs out.
Dozens of former Bitcoin mining corporations have begun to repurpose their infrastructure into AI knowledge facilities, turning their GPU-rich, power-intensive setups into rentable compute farms for coaching, inference, and high-performance computing.
As these firms shift from a Bitcoin or broader crypto play to AI, they’re additionally being handled as AI performs. Consequently, their shares are seeing a better share worth and valuation.
With dozens of alternatives within the area at present and extra upside forward as knowledge facilities proceed to be constructed out globally, many firms look engaging as small-cap alternatives amid the AI buildout at present.
Hive Digital Applied sciences (HIVE)
HIVE Digital Applied sciences has shifted as a pure crypto play to a twin play on crypto and AI infrastructure.
The corporate has executed a formidable strategic pivot, evolving from bitcoin mining to high-performance computing.
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It’s aiming for a $100 million run fee utilizing Nvidia AI chips.
This transformation leverages present infrastructure whereas tapping into the higher-margin AI market.
HIVE’s bitcoin mining capability rose 10.4 EH/s by Might 2025, a 58% month-over-month surge, with plans to succeed in 25 EH/s by late 2025.
The corporate’s dedication to renewable vitality operations in Canada, Sweden, and Paraguay positions it favorably worldwide—and in areas with plentiful low-cost, environmentally pleasant vitality.
HIVE’s AI enlargement contains strategic investments in Nvidia GPU clusters, with operations anticipated to scale considerably.
HIVE is a frontrunner in first-mover benefit within the mining-to-AI transition. It holds essential infrastructure like low-cost energy and knowledge facilities.
“The lesson right here is that bitcoin miners had been the stepping stone for the AI enterprise. They sourced stranded, wasted, and surplus electrical energy going nowhere. Bitcoin miners went and located a option to extract that vitality and create economics out of it. That’s what’s actually vital. We’re the stepping stone for the good AI growth that we’re experiencing proper now,” notes HIVE Government Chairman Frank Holmes.
Plus, as of August 2025, HIVE boasts a considerable treasury holding of two,201 BTC ($251.73 million worth), permitting it to revenue from Bitcoin’s rise with out the economics of mining for it.
Core Scientific (CORZ)
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Core Scientific is one other firm making the shift from cryptocurrency mining to AI knowledge heart infrastructure.
The corporate expects “a comparatively equal break up” between crypto mining and AI in 2025, representing “a radical shift from the excessive volatility bitcoin mining area shifting into the information heart” enterprise.
Within the meantime, CoreWeave has a definitive settlement to accumulate Core Scientific in an all-stock transaction valued at roughly $9 billion, considerably larger than the $5.2 billion market cap shares had on the finish of September.
Particularly, Core Scientific stockholders will obtain 0.1235 newly issued shares of CoreWeave Class A standard inventory for every share, with the transaction anticipated to shut by the top of 2025.
Core Scientific’s transformation is obvious in main enlargement initiatives, together with a $1.2 billion enlargement of an information heart in Denton, Texas, with CoreWeave to assist AI and high-performance cloud computing.
Moreover, the corporate plans new AI knowledge facilities in Georgia, with the primary facility opening by July 2026.
The acquisition may show useful for buyers, with operational and lease fee financial savings netting over $500 million yearly by the top of 2027.
This vertical integration eliminates rental funds CoreWeave beforehand made to Core Scientific whereas securing essential infrastructure capability.
It may assist increase valuations as soon as the merger is full, as AI knowledge heart demand continues to develop massively.
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Core Scientific’s established infrastructure, strategic partnerships, and pending acquisition by a number one AI cloud supplier place it advantageously within the multi-trillion greenback AI infrastructure buildout, providing buyers publicity to this transformative technological shift.
REN Restricted (IREN)
IREN Restricted has turn out to be a momentum inventory in latest weeks. Its shares have soared since executing a strategic pivot from bitcoin mining to AI-ready knowledge facilities.
The corporate uniquely combines high-margin bitcoin mining with a strategic shift into inexperienced AI knowledge facilities.
To this point, that’s created 128% YoY development, supported by ultra-low vitality prices (3.3¢/kWh) that present a significant aggressive benefit in comparison with different mining-to-AI performs.
The transformation is already producing important returns. IREN’s AI cloud providers now generate $26 million in annualized income, with 1,896 AI-capable GPUs (together with NVIDIA H100/H200) deployed.
Nonetheless, the actual development catalyst got here with IREN’s huge $674 million funding in 12,400 new GPUs, doubling AI cloud capability to 23,000 models, which the corporate expects will generate some $500 million in annualized gross sales by early subsequent yr.
IREN’s flagship improvement, the Horizon 1 facility, is a $300-350 million venture designed to assist 200kW per rack by way of direct-to-chip cooling to host Nvidia Blackwell GPUs.
Past this, IREN’s Sweetwater facility represents a 2GW flagship AI & compute hub with capability for greater than 700,000 liquid-cooled Blackwell GPUs.
Shares at the moment are up roughly 300% in 2025 and 400% over the past 12 months.
However with the AI knowledge heart story nonetheless the toast of buyers within the inventory market at present, IREN is simply one other crypto mining play shifting with investor demand to the recent story of AI.