This text first appeared in The Vitality Magazine. The unique article may be seen right here. The Vitality Magazine (previously The Miner Magazine) gives information, knowledge, and insights on the power–compute–markets nexus.
Within the first installment of this sequence, we explored a foundational thought: Bitcoin mining was by no means nearly digital forex. It was designed as a long-term power system operating on a provide schedule that extends over greater than a century.
Within the second installment, we examined how that system isn’t distinctive to Bitcoin. Trendy AI knowledge facilities are constructed on the identical bodily basis—chips, energy, cooling, and infrastructure—all working collectively to show electrical energy into Bitcoin mining and AI processing at scale.
The AI increase has elevated demand exponentially, requiring cutting-edge infrastructure and high-efficiency know-how to assist grid resilience, in the end reshaping how the digital future is constructed.
Throughout the know-how sector, builders are more and more transferring past conventional grid reliance, securing electrical energy extra instantly via devoted power belongings. This “carry your personal energy” strategy could really feel new to AI, however it’s a playbook Bitcoin miners have been refining for years.
This sort of vertical integration has turn out to be a defining characteristic of the Bitcoin mining business. As corporations have undertaken growth into new markets, together with the US, they’ve labored to determine current infrastructure. Nevertheless, this wave of growth has not stopped at knowledge facilities—it extends into energy itself, as operators search to enhance reliability, sustainability, and affordability of the power provide via direct possession and partnerships with power corporations.
This third installment builds on that evolution. If Bitcoin mining and AI knowledge facilities share the identical underlying system, the following query is how corporations place themselves inside it. What emerges is a spectrum of enterprise fashions—starting from outsourcing to full vertical integration.
The extra of this stack an organization controls, the extra capital-intensive it’s and the extra it influences its prices, efficiency, and in the end, its returns.
However it is very important notice that this stack isn’t static—and neither are the businesses working inside it.
As Bitcoin mining and AI knowledge facilities scale on the identical underlying infrastructure, the road between their enterprise fashions is starting to blur. The 2 seemingly distinct industries are more and more changing into one shared system, with stakeholders transferring throughout it in actual time.
The Entry Level: Asset-Mild Deployment
On the most simple stage, participation in each Bitcoin mining and AI computing begins with deploying {hardware}.
In Bitcoin mining, this implies proudly owning ASIC machines—specialised chips designed to carry out a single job—and putting them into amenities operated by others to generate Bitcoin. In AI computing, the equal is deploying GPUs into knowledge facilities, the place they’re used to coach fashions and run workloads for patrons.
In each circumstances, corporations personal the machines—however not the infrastructure.
That infrastructure is offered by colocation operators, which provide energy, cooling, and bodily area to run compute at scale. Traditionally, this has been seen as a supporting perform. More and more, it’s changing into some of the necessary components of the enterprise.
Colocation is now not nearly internet hosting machines—it’s about monetizing energy and infrastructure.
Throughout Bitcoin mining, this mannequin has lengthy been embedded within the business. Firms like ABTC have deployed miners hosted via guardian infrastructure operators reminiscent of Hut 8 (NASDAQ: HUT), whereas others, reminiscent of Cango, function fleets hosted in amenities managed by Bitmain. In every case, the separation between {hardware} possession and infrastructure operation defines the enterprise mannequin.
That very same construction is now rising in AI.
Firms like Fluidstack are deploying GPU clusters via partnerships with infrastructure suppliers together with Cipher and TeraWulf, leveraging current power-connected websites to serve AI workloads with out proudly owning the underlying amenities. Bitdeer (NASDAQ: BTDR) is actively creating AI colocation capability at scale, together with a deliberate 180 MW facility in Tydal, Norway that’s at present in negotiations with a possible tenant.
As AI demand accelerates and energy turns into the limiting issue, infrastructure with current grid entry is changing into more and more useful. Many websites initially constructed for Bitcoin mining at the moment are well-positioned to assist AI workloads, and over time, a rising share of those amenities—notably throughout the U.S. and Europe—are anticipated to transition towards AI and high-performance computing functions.
In that sense, colocation is now not simply the entry level to the stack.
It’s changing into a bridge between two industries—connecting power, infrastructure, and compute demand in a single, evolving system.
Controlling Infrastructure
As corporations transfer up the stack, the following step is proudly owning the bodily setting itself.
At this stage, corporations are now not simply deploying {hardware}. As a substitute of counting on third-party internet hosting, operators construct or purchase their very own amenities, together with knowledge facilities, substations, and cooling techniques.
This shift adjustments operations considerably. Infrastructure possession permits operators to manage energy prices, optimize efficiency, and cut back dependency on exterior suppliers.
However more and more, the worth of infrastructure is not only within the buildings—it’s within the energy connections connected to them.
That dynamic is now enjoying out throughout industrial belongings that have been as soon as thought of out of date, permitting for corporations to show underutilized amenities into highly effective engines for progress
Firms like Alcoa have begun exploring the sale of idled aluminum smelter websites to digital asset corporations reminiscent of NYDIG, whereas Century Aluminum has bought a Kentucky facility to TeraWulf, which is now pivoting towards AI and high-performance computing.
Many of those websites confronted shutdown as a result of gradual offshoring of high-paying business jobs to different international locations. However they share one important characteristic: they’re already related to the power grid at scale.
That interconnection—typically the toughest and slowest a part of constructing new infrastructure—has all of the sudden turn out to be a useful asset in its personal proper.
Because of this, amenities initially constructed for heavy business are discovering a second life as compute infrastructure, repurposed to assist Bitcoin mining and AI workloads alike. That is bringing important technical roles again to the US, rebuilding key infrastructure, and accelerating the nation as a worldwide chief in know-how and innovation.
On this setting, proudly owning infrastructure is now not nearly controlling operations. It’s about securing entry to power techniques that may deal with growing demand whereas supporting total resilience.
Carry Your Personal Energy
However even that pool of grid-connected infrastructure is restricted.
The variety of industrial websites with current high-capacity interconnections is finite, and far of it has already been recognized or repurposed by main industries. As client demand for computing accelerates—notably from AI—the dimensions of energy required necessitates options to take care of grid resilience whereas deploying new technological options.
In different phrases, the constraint is now not simply the place infrastructure exists. It’s whether or not the power grid itself can sustain. That stress is now forcing a broader shift.
Throughout main energy markets, operators are confronting a brand new actuality: connecting giant hundreds to the grid is changing into extra advanced and more and more unsure. Consequently, regulators are starting to revisit how giant power customers are built-in into the system.
In areas like PJM and ERCOT, grid operators have already began to regulate their frameworks in response to surging demand from knowledge facilities and different high-load customers. New guidelines and proposals are rising to manipulate how large-load knowledge facilities connect with the grid, how prices are allotted, and the way reliability is maintained amid quickly rising demand.
To deal with these challenges, a rising variety of operators are transferring past the grid altogether.
A transparent instance of this strategy may be seen within the partnership between Amazon and Talen Vitality, the place knowledge heart infrastructure is being developed alongside nuclear era capability. Whereas AWS doesn’t personal the ability asset outright, the construction successfully aligns compute with a devoted power provide—mirroring the identical precept that has lengthy underpinned Bitcoin mining operations.
In Bitcoin mining, this has lengthy included co-locating with underutilized power sources. Firms like New West Knowledge flare gasoline from oil manufacturing websites and use that energy to energise Bitcoin miners for further money movement. In 2020, Greenidge Era grew to become what was generally known as the primary energy plant to instantly take part in bitcoin mining, reviving an asset that may have been shut down attributable to its lack of competitiveness within the energy market.
In AI computing, the same mannequin is rising. Knowledge heart builders are more and more partnering with—or instantly constructing alongside—energy era belongings, together with pure gasoline, nuclear, and most significantly, renewable power.
This “carry your personal energy” mannequin transforms electrical energy from a value heart right into a strategic benefit. It permits operators to stabilize pricing, guarantee availability, and align compute capability with power provide.
In Bitcoin mining, this evolution has been unfolding for years and is just rising.
A transparent instance is Bitfarms. The corporate traditionally operated as a self-mining enterprise, proudly owning infrastructure and deploying its personal computational energy. However with the acquisition of Stronghold, Bitfarms moved upstream into energy era, gaining direct management over power belongings. It later rebranded to Keel Infrastructure, signaling a broader transition away from pure Bitcoin mining towards a mannequin that may assist AI and high-performance computing workloads.
In impact, Bitcoin corporations are constructing the experience to energy the demand base for the applied sciences of the long run, together with AI.
Full Vertical Integration
For some operators, even taking possession of energy isn’t the ultimate step.
On the highest finish of the spectrum, corporations can management practically each part of the compute system: energy era, infrastructure, {hardware} deployment, and even chip design.
In AI computing, hyperscalers (like Amazon Internet Companies, Microsoft and Google) are starting to maneuver in the identical route—creating customized chips, securing long-term power provide, and constructing large-scale knowledge heart campuses tailor-made to their workloads. In Bitcoin mining, this mannequin is now not theoretical. It’s already taking form.
Canaan, the earliest Bitcoin ASIC designers with its Avalon model, has expanded past {hardware} into working its personal mining infrastructure. Lately, it has scaled proprietary computing energy by deploying its personal machines throughout websites it controls instantly or via joint ventures. Earlier this yr, Canaan deepened that technique by buying Cipher Digital’s 49% stake within the Texas joint ventures with WindHQ, a wind electrical energy generator, transferring its publicity additional upstream within the stack.
An identical trajectory may be seen with Bitdeer. Initially targeted on cloud mining and proprietary operations, the corporate has steadily expanded its management over infrastructure, scaling its unique computing energy to round 70 EH/s. It has additionally moved into energy era, together with the acquisition of land and a license for a 101 MW permitted plant in Canada, additional integrating power into its working mannequin.
On the identical time, Bitdeer is extending horizontally into AI processing. The corporate has begun deploying its personal GPU infrastructure for AI cloud providers whereas exploring high-performance computing colocation alternatives with tenants.
This twin growth—up the stack into energy and throughout into AI workloads—illustrates how the boundaries between Bitcoin mining and knowledge heart infrastructure are starting to dissolve. At this stage, the target is now not simply effectivity. It’s entry.
By operationalizing every layer of the stack, operators can optimize efficiency end-to-end, cut back publicity to exterior constraints, and outline their very own capability limits.
Whereas few corporations absolutely occupy this place immediately, the route of journey is obvious. The nearer operators transfer towards full integration, the extra they rework from customers of key power and digital infrastructure into builders of it.
Similar Stack, Totally different Positions
What emerges from this comparability isn’t a narrative of two separate industries, however of 1 shared system with a number of factors of participation.
Bitcoin mining and AI knowledge facilities differ of their workloads and clients. However structurally, they function alongside the identical continuum of possession—from asset-light deployment to infrastructure possession, to securing energy instantly, and in the end to full vertical integration.
Extra importantly, these positions should not fastened. Firms are continuously repositioning themselves—transferring up the stack to realize management, or throughout it to seize new sources of client demand. These dynamics have strengthened the Bitcoin-AI coexistence strategy: safe a large energy contract and instantly monetize it with proprietary bitcoin mining energy whereas seamlessly retrofitting the infrastructure for higher-margin AI computing colocation.
Bitcoin miners, by necessity, started fixing these issues early, and AI corporations at the moment are arriving on the identical conclusions. The important thing distinction is now not the system itself, however how every firm chooses to navigate.
Within the subsequent installment, we’ll take this one step additional: How these fashions are starting to converge—and what which means for the way forward for power, compute, and capital.
This text first appeared in The Vitality Magazine. The unique article may be seen right here. The Vitality Magazine (previously The Miner Magazine) gives information, knowledge, and insights on the power–compute–markets nexus.
