I noticed an intriguing turn in the history of Bitcoin mining, which seems to be being rewritten right now. Public companies in this sector are experiencing serious stress — losses of about $19,000 per mined BTC at a price around $72,000. But instead of giving up, they’re doing something radical: transforming into operators of data centers for artificial intelligence.

This is not just a small pivot. In the public sector alone, over $70 billion worth of contracts for AI and high-performance computing have already been signed. Core Scientific, TeraWulf, Hut 8 — all have entered into multi-billion dollar long-term agreements. By the end of this year, some companies could be earning up to 70 percent of their revenue from AI, rather than traditional mining.

Economics explains everything. Mining infrastructure costs roughly $700,000 to $1 million per megawatt, while AI infrastructure is valued at $8–15 million per megawatt. The difference is huge, but the main point is that AI offers margins above 85 percent with multi-year revenue visibility. For comparison: the hash price in March dropped to a historic low, around $28–$30 per petahash per day. At these levels, electricity costs need to be below $0.05 per kilowatt-hour to remain profitable at all.

They decided to finance this transition in two ways. The first — debt. IREN issued convertible bonds worth $3.7 billion, TeraWulf has a total debt of $5.7 billion, Cipher Digital issued bonds of $1.7 billion in November. The second — Bitcoin sales. Core Scientific sold about 1,900 BTC in January and plans to liquidate almost all remaining reserves in the first quarter. Bitdeer completely depleted its reserves in February. Even Marathon, the largest public holder with 53,000 BTC, expanded its policy to include sales from its full balance.

Here’s an interesting paradox. The same companies selling Bitcoin to finance AI infrastructure are the ones whose mining operations secure the entire Bitcoin network. When they cut capacity, the hash rate drops. The network peaked at about 1,160 exahashes per second in October, and now it’s fallen to 920 EH/s with three consecutive difficulty adjustment decreases.

The market has already priced in this split. Companies with secured HPC contracts are trading at a ratio of 12.3 to expected revenue, while pure mining companies are at 5.9. Investors are paying more than twice as much for exposure to AI. This increases the incentive for further pivoting.

Forecasts suggest the hash rate could reach 1.8 zettahashes by the end of 2026, but that depends on Bitcoin’s price recovering to $100,000. If the price stays at $70,000 or below, the shift to AI infrastructure will accelerate, and the traditional mining sector will be completely transformed. Next-generation equipment could help — new chips will consume half as much energy per Bitcoin, but deploying them requires capital that companies are now directing into AI.

Overall, we are witnessing a fundamental shift in what these companies truly are. Ten years ago, they were miners accumulating Bitcoin. Now, they are becoming data center operators selling Bitcoin to fund growth. Whether this is a temporary reaction or a permanent transformation depends on one thing: Bitcoin’s price.