Bitcoin Miners Supply Power for AI Data Centers

A Bernstein research note finds publicly traded Bitcoin miners control more than 27 gigawatts of planned power capacity and have announced over $90 billion in AI-related agreements covering about 3.7 GW of committed capacity.

The note, authored by Gautam Chhugani, Mahika Sapra, Sanskar Chindalia and Harsh Misra, reports that access to electricity has become the primary bottleneck for expanding AI compute, displacing chip supply as the leading constraint.

Bernstein’s analysts reported long utility approval timelines as a central issue. They wrote: “The median waiting time to secure a GW of power is nothing less than ~50 months across states, and even in politically friendly states such as Texas, the utility is following a batch review process to navigate the interconnect queue and resource load.” The firm also cited growing regulatory scrutiny and local opposition to large-scale data centers as factors that slow new grid connections.

Many public miners already operate grid-connected facilities built for high-density computing and have experience managing large power draws. Bernstein estimates the planned power portfolios of 11 public Bitcoin mining companies exceed 27 GW, capacity that can be repurposed to host AI and high-performance computing workloads.

Bernstein’s tally of announced AI-related agreements totals more than $90 billion and covers roughly 3.7 GW. The contracts involve hyperscalers, neocloud providers and hardware suppliers seeking sites with existing power and cooling infrastructure and ready grid connections.

A RAND research brief published April 29 projected about 82 GW of additional net available capacity in the United States by 2030. Bernstein’s figures indicate a notable portion of near-term, privately planned capacity is held by public miners that can be adapted for AI workloads.

The 2024 Bitcoin halving reduced mining rewards and pressured profit margins, prompting some operators to diversify. Bernstein highlights Soluna Holdings, which reported a 58% increase in first-quarter revenue driven mainly by its data center hosting business while crypto mining made up a smaller share of sales. Bernstein also points to IREN’s multibillion-dollar agreements with Microsoft that could shift much of its activity toward AI infrastructure.

Miners can shorten deployment timelines for customers that need large amounts of compute quickly by offering existing substations, transmission agreements and turn-key real estate. Bernstein notes those features help explain why large cloud providers and chipmakers are signing long-term deals for capacity at mining sites.

The research note documents a growing overlap between the crypto-mining and AI infrastructure supply chains as companies with power expertise and existing grid connections monetize those assets through hosting and commercial partnerships.