Crypto Mining Companies Accelerate AIDC Deployment: From "Miners" to "Compute Power Landlords" in a Major Industry Shift

Since 2025, crypto mining companies have been undergoing a fundamental sector switch. As of March 2026, these companies have signed contracts worth over $65 billion with AI firms and tech giants. Leading players like CoreWeave, Microsoft, and NVIDIA have become clients, with a 12-year contract between CoreWeave and Core Scientific valued at up to $10.2 billion.
The primary driver of this transformation is the structural collapse of the mining profit model. In Q3 2025, the mining costs for listed companies, including depreciation, rose to $112k, surpassing Bitcoin prices at the time, with losses per coin approaching $20k. CoinShares predicts that by the end of 2026, the share of mining revenue for transitioning companies will plummet from over 85% to less than 20%, gradually shifting to "data center operators with mining capabilities."
The advantage of this transformation for mining companies comes from the scarcity of their power and infrastructure resources. Traditional AI data center construction takes 3 to 5 years, whereas mine site upgrades only require 18 to 24 months. These companies have already deployed low-cost electricity (generally 3 to 5 cents per kilowatt-hour) near major metropolitan areas and possess mature cooling and grid access capabilities, making these resources highly sought after in the current AI computing power race.
The commercial potential is significant, but execution risks cannot be ignored. The valuation multiples of these transitioning companies are nearly twice those of pure mining firms, and the market has invested real money to support this narrative. However, the capital intensity of AI compute infrastructure (up to $11 million per megawatt) combined with risks from technological integration, customer concentration, and electricity price fluctuations means whether mining companies can avoid the "money-burning trap" remains a key variable. This shift from "miners" to "compute power landlords" signifies a revaluation of compute resources as a new core asset with strategic importance. #加密矿企加速布局AIDC