What happened?
Since the latest Bitcoin halving, big mining companies have started leasing their power and data‑center capacity to AI and high‑performance computing customers under long‑term contracts. Examples include Cipher Mining’s 168 MW, 10‑year deal with Fluidstack valued at about $3 billion (with Google financing and a small equity stake) and TeraWulf’s agreements dedicating over 200 MW to AI workloads that analysts value in the billions. The shift is changing how miners spend capital — moving from short‑cycle ASIC buys toward datacenter upgrades, GPUs and long‑term service commitments.
Who does this affect?
This affects miners directly, because allocating megawatts to AI hosting reduces the capacity they can use for Bitcoin mining and changes their revenue mix. It matters to investors, who will now value some miner stocks as hybrids with contracted dollar revenue instead of pure Bitcoin proxies. AI companies, cloud providers, equipment sellers, and the broader Bitcoin network (through possible slower hash‑rate growth and different difficulty dynamics) are also impacted.
Why does this matter?
For markets, the move could lower miners’ exposure to Bitcoin price swings by adding predictable, dollar‑denominated contract revenue, which may reduce the beta of miner equities. Lease prices for power and long‑term hosting deals could become a new valuation metric alongside hashprice, changing how analysts and lenders underwrite deals and value firms. At the network level, dedicating capacity to AI could slow hash‑rate growth and alter mining competition, while the added balance‑sheet stability makes it easier for miners to raise capital outside bull markets.