Mining companies' big migration: Some are already holding $12.8 billion in AI orders

Original | Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)

Author | Wenser (@wenser 2010)

Over the past decade, Bitcoin mining companies have been the most stable foundation of PoW networks and the cost anchor of BTC’s “Level 0 market.” But now, this industry cornerstone is collectively turning around,主动 or passively, moving closer to AI.

On the surface, the direct reason for miners’ transformation is the continuous increase in mining difficulty and squeezed profit margins due to sluggish markets; but the deeper driving force is the extreme pursuit of AI narratives by capital markets—and miners happen to possess the most easily convertible real assets: electricity, land, cooling systems, data centers, and existing infrastructure, which can be exchanged for AI computing orders worth hundreds of billions of dollars.

Against the backdrop of multi-model racing, miners at the intersection of energy, electricity, computing power, and crypto assets are experiencing an unprecedented yet almost inevitable industry migration.

Some are steady and cautious, others are forced to turn around and go all-in, but one thing is certain: a storm is brewing—this is a structural shift from the crypto market to the AI world.

Hard battles to fight, irresistible opportunities

By 2026, for miners, the real pressure has never just been price fluctuations but structural squeeze: difficulty keeps rising, revenue per unit declines, and operating costs keep climbing.

Winter: Selling Coins for Survival and Bankruptcy

On February 20, Bitcoin mining difficulty surged 15% to 144.4T, the largest increase since 2021. During the same period, network hash rate rebounded from 826EH/s to 1ZH/s, but hashprice fell to a multi-year low, around $23.9 per PH/s. Under the ongoing profit compression caused by the 2024 halving, miners are forced into cash flow defense mode.

The most symbolic case is from Deer Miner. On February 20, it disclosed that its BTC holdings had dropped to zero, with production and sales perfectly balanced that week. Although founder Wu Jihan later explained that “zero now doesn’t mean zero in the future,” the market still sees this as a microcosm of industry pressure.

It’s not just one. In early February, NFN8 Group filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Texas, planning to sell all assets. Documents show that a core mine suffered a fire, lease-back models increased leasing burdens, and the sharp drop in hashprice after the halving directly crushed cash flow. Despite owning multiple mines, NFN8’s self-owned 5,000 miners are valued at less than $50,000, with debts reaching hundreds of thousands.

As the environment worsens, miners’ responses are remarkably consistent—moving toward AI.

Spring: Huge AI/HPC Orders and Surprising Profits

For AI giants, computing data centers are always scarce: traditional construction cycles take 3–5 years, with high land, electricity, and cooling costs. Miners already have electricity contracts, infrastructure, and operational experience, making them the most realistic partners during AI expansion.

Since last year, miners have seen a surge in orders. According to public data, as of writing, including IREN, CIFR, HUT, and others, six miners have accumulated AI/HPC orders totaling about $38.5 billion. Notably, TeraWulf and Fluidstack signed contracts worth $12.8 billion, and IREN signed a five-year, $9.7 billion deal with Microsoft. These figures have become key support for their stock price strength. Financial reports show that AI/HPC revenue for many miners has increased from less than 15% to 40–60%.

If mining is a cyclical business, AI is like a long-term cash flow pipeline.

Earnings consensus: AI becomes the keyword

The Q1 2026 earnings season almost uniformly signals that miners are systematically transforming.

“HPC Contract Giant” WULF: Holding Over $12.8 Billion in Contracts

Miner TeraWulf’s 2025 full-year revenue reached $168.5 million, up 20.3% year-over-year, with $16.9 million from newly launched high-performance computing (HPC) leasing.

TeraWulf currently holds over $12.8 billion in HPC contracts, with 522MW capacity already signed, and has secured $6.5 billion in financing support for data center expansion.

“AI Miner Small Giant” IREN: Holding a $9.7 Billion Microsoft Deal

Thanks to previous large orders and rapid transformation, IREN is increasingly seen as a new-generation “AI miner small giant.”

According to IREN’s financial report, as of January 31, 2026, it held $2.8 billion in cash and equivalents, and has raised over $9.2 billion this fiscal year through customer prepayments, convertible bonds, GPU leasing, and GPU financing. The plan is to add 140,000 GPUs, aiming for $3.4 billion in annual recurring revenue by the end of 2026.

“Trump Family” HUT: Holding $7 Billion in Orders

Hut8 earned $9.6 million from custody services in FY2025, with about $1.4 billion in cash and Bitcoin reserves.

Additionally, Hut8’s spun-off subsidiary AmericanBitcoin (ABTC) achieved $185.2 million in revenue in 2025, deploying about 25EH/s of computing power and holding approximately 78,000 ASIC miners. Its BTC reserves have exceeded 6,000 coins.

This company is also a major crypto miner supported by the Trump family, attracting high market attention.

“Brand Fully Transformed” CIFR: Holding $5.5 Billion in Orders

Miner CipherDigital disclosed in its FY2025 report that it has officially renamed from “CipherMining” to “CipherDigital” to complete its rebranding.

Last November, CIFR signed a leasing agreement with Amazon Web Services worth up to $5.5 billion; additionally, it exchanged 5.4% equity for Google’s guarantee of $1.4 billion in contracts with Fluidstack.

“Selling Coins to Buy Land and Build Data Centers” RIOT: Partnering with AMD

Riot Platforms reported FY2025 revenue of $647.4 million, a significant increase from $376.7 million in 2024; it holds over 18,000 BTC.

In January, RIOT sold 1,080 BTC, raising about $96 million, which was used to purchase Rockdale land for data center development. The company also signed a leasing and service agreement with AMD to deploy 25MW of critical IT load capacity in Rockdale. Aggressive investor Starboard Value estimates Riot’s AI and HPC transformation potential valuation at up to $21 billion.

“BTC Loyalists” MARA: Collaborating with Capital Institutions on AI Data Centers

MARA’s financials show that, due to Bitcoin’s average mining price dropping about 14%, Q4 2025 revenue was $202.3 million, down about 6% year-over-year. At the end of February, MARA announced a partnership with investment firm Starwood Capital Group to build large-scale AI and cloud computing data centers on existing US mines. After the announcement, its stock surged about 17% in after-hours trading.

Unlike other miners fully shifting to AI, MARA’s management emphasizes that despite short-term price uncertainties, their long-term confidence in Bitcoin remains unchanged—Bitcoin will still be the core of their long-term strategy.

“Data Center Revenue Surges” CORZ: Holding Over $10 Billion in Orders from CoreWeave

CoreScientific (CORZ) released its Q4 2025 financial report, with total revenue of $79.8 million, down from $94.9 million a year earlier. Bitcoin mining revenue fell to $42.2 million; data center hosting revenue soared to $31.3 million, above $8.5 million in 2024. Q4 gross profit rose to $20.8 million, compared to $4.8 million in the same period last year.

CEO Adam Sullivan said the company’s ongoing projects are over half completed, expanding hosting capacity to 1.5GW. In October last year, AI firm CoreWeave planned to acquire CoreScientific at about $9 billion valuation but withdrew due to shareholder approval issues; in January, CoreScientific sold 1,900 BTC (~$17.5 million) for business transformation.

The company estimates that AI will drive a 60.9% CAGR in revenue from 2026 to 2028, reaching $1.5 billion by 2028.

Other Miners: Bitfarms Rebrands, BitDigital Switches to ETH Camp

In February, Bitfarms (BITF) announced relocating its headquarters from Canada to the US and plans to rename to Keel Infrastructure (pending approval from shareholders, exchanges, and courts), accelerating infrastructure transformation. Previously, in October last year, it converted $300 million debt financing into project funding for a Pennsylvania data center, and in January sold the Paso Pe mine for $30 million, exiting the Latin American market.

Meanwhile, BitDigital’s shift is more radical. As early as July last year, amid the digital asset craze, it announced shifting from BTC to ETH holdings. In January this year, it clarified it would cease Bitcoin mining entirely, focusing instead on Ethereum infrastructure, staking, and HPC/AI strategies, marking a full camp switch after five years of mining. Its AI subsidiary WhiteFiber has completed an IPO; BitDigital owns about 27 million shares, worth over $457 million at current market prices.

Besides these, Galaxy, Deer Miner, Cleanspark, and Cango are still advancing AI transformation, with revenue contributions still growing. Notably, Cango completed a $10.5 million equity financing in February, with an additional $65 million investment pledge, potentially accelerating AI/HPC data center deployment.

Below is a brief comparison based on public info for reference.

Capital Attitudes: Choosing Winners, Not Narratives

The market’s view on “AI transformation” is not uniform but rapidly diverging.

In early February, JPMorgan reported that Bitcoin miners performed strongly at the start of the year, mainly driven by easing network competition and rising HPC narratives. At that time, the 14 US-listed miners and data center operators tracked by JPM had a combined market cap of about $60 billion at the end of January, up 23% month-over-month, far exceeding the roughly 1% gain of the S&P 500.

But soon after, with a new wave of AI model releases and the impact of OpenClaw on software stock valuations, market sentiment shifted quickly. Concerns about structural disruption from AI grew, and stocks related to AI infrastructure, including CIFR, IREN, and Hut8, fell over 10% intraday.

On February 10, Morgan Stanley issued a research report upgrading CIFR and WULF to overweight, while downgrading MARA to underweight.

By the end of February, with order fulfillment and stock prices rebounding, market sentiment reversed again. Some analysts believe that, given hedge fund short positions and miners locking in long-term low-cost power contracts, their strategic value extends beyond traditional mining to AI infrastructure providers.

As orders are fulfilled and stock prices rise, the market’s logic becomes clearer: capital only bets on structural winners.

Therefore, the future of miners largely depends on three things:

Execution: How quickly can they complete the shift in computing power form;

Resource Endowment: Whether they have scale advantages in electricity and land;

Narrative Capability: Whether they can embed into the AI upstream supply chain.

In reality, the key is not the company’s transformation decision itself but how capital filters and selects.

The wave is here; miners have only two choices: go with the flow or become history.