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 for BTC’s “zero-level market.” But now, these industry cornerstones are collectively turning around,主动 or passively, aligning more with 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 adaptable 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—standing 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 bet everything, but one thing is certain: a storm is brewing. This is a structural shift from the crypto market toward the AI world.

Hard battles ahead and irresistible opportunities

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

Winter: Selling coins to survive and bankruptcy liquidation

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

The most symbolic event comes from Bit Deer. On February 20, it disclosed that its BTC holdings had dropped to zero, with production and sales fully matching 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 miner pressure.

The crisis isn’t limited to one company. 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 rental burdens, and the sharp drop in hashprice after the halving directly crushed cash flow. Despite owning multiple mines, NFN8’s own 5,000 mining rigs are now valued at less than $50,000, with liabilities reaching hundreds of thousands.

As conditions worsen, miners’ responses are remarkably consistent—moving toward AI.

A second spring: staggering profits behind AI/HPC mega-orders

For AI giants, computing data centers are always scarce: traditional construction cycles take 3–5 years, with high land, power, and cooling costs. Miners, however, already hold power 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, six miners—including IREN, CIFR, HUT—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 gains. 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 is the keyword

The Q1 2026 earnings season almost unanimously signals that miners are undergoing systematic transformation.

“High-volume HPC contract holder” WULF: holding over $12.8 billion in contracts

Miner TeraWulf achieved $168.5 million in revenue in 2025, up 20.3% year-over-year, with $16.9 million from newly launched HPC leasing business.

TeraWulf currently holds over $12.8 billion in HPC contracts, with 522MW capacity 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 order

Thanks to previous large orders and rapid transformation, IREN is emerging 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. It plans to add 140,000 GPUs, aiming for $3.4 billion in annual recurring revenue by the end of 2026.

“Hut of Trump’s family”: holding $7 billion in orders

Hut82025 fiscal year generated $9.6 million from managed services, and holds about $1.4 billion in cash and Bitcoin reserves.

Additionally, Hut8’s spun-off subsidiary AmericanBitcoin (ABTC) reported full-year revenue of $185.2 million, with about 25EH/s of hash rate deployed and approximately 78,000 ASIC miners. Its BTC reserves have surpassed 6,000 coins.

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

“Brand transformation completed” CIFR: holding $5.5 billion in orders

Miner CipherDigital disclosed in its 2025 fiscal year report that it officially renamed from “CipherMining” to “CipherDigital” to complete its rebranding.

Last November, CIFR signed a lease agreement worth up to $5.5 billion with Amazon Web Services; 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 for leasing

Miner Riot Platforms reported full-year 2025 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, to purchase land in Rockdale for data center development. The company also signed a data center leasing and service agreement with AMD, deploying 25MW of critical IT load capacity in Rockdale. Aggressive investment firm Starboard Value estimates Riot’s potential valuation at up to $21 billion due to its AI and HPC transformation.

“BTC steadfast” MARA: collaborating with capital institutions on AI data centers

MARA’s financials show that, affected by about a 14% decline in average Bitcoin mining price, its 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.

Notably, unlike other miners firmly shifting to AI, MARA’s management emphasizes that despite short-term price uncertainties, their long-term confidence in Bitcoin remains unchanged, and Bitcoin will continue to be a core part of their long-term strategy.

“Data center revenue soars” 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 dropped to $42.2 million; data center hosting revenue surged to $31.3 million, up from $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 stated that over half of the company’s current projects are completed, and they are expanding hosting capacity to 1.5 GW. In October last year, AI company CoreWeave planned to acquire CoreScientific at an estimated valuation of about $9 billion but withdrew due to shareholder rejection; in January, CoreScientific sold 1,900 BTC (about $175 million) to fund its transformation.

The company estimates that AI business will drive a 60.9% compound annual growth rate in revenue from 2026 to 2028, reaching $1.5 billion by 2028.

Other miners: Bitfarms rebrands, BitDigital shifts to ETH camp

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

Meanwhile, BitDigital’s shift is more radical. As early as July last year, amid the rise of the digital asset treasury trend, it announced a switch from BTC to ETH, listing as a company; in January this year, it clarified that it would cease Bitcoin mining entirely and focus on Ethereum infrastructure, staking, and HPC/AI strategies—marking a complete camp switch after five years of mining. Its AI subsidiary WhiteFiber has completed an IPO, and BitDigital owns about 27 million shares, valued at over $457 million at current market prices.

Besides these, Galaxy, Bit Deer, Cleanspark, and Cango are still in the AI transformation stage, with revenue contribution still growing. Notably, Cango completed a $10.5 million equity financing in February, with an additional $65 million investment commitment, potentially accelerating its AI/HPC data center deployment.

Below is a brief comparison based on publicly available information for reference.

Capital Attitudes: Choosing Winners, Not Narratives

The market’s acceptance of “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 combined market cap of 14 US-listed miners and data center operators tracked by JPMorgan reached about $60 billion at the end of January, a 23% increase month-over-month, far exceeding the roughly 1% rise of the S&P 500.

However, as new AI models flooded the market and OpenClaw impacted software stock valuations, market sentiment quickly shifted. Concerns about AI-induced structural disruption 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 and downgrading MARA to underweight.

By the end of February, with order fulfillment and stock price recovery, market sentiment reversed again. Some analysts believe that, amid high short-selling ratios 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 rebound, the market logic becomes clearer: capital is only betting on structural winners.

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

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

Resource endowment: Do they have scale advantages in electricity and land?

Narrative ability: Can they embed into the AI upstream supply chain?

In reality, the key is not the company’s transformation decision but the capital’s selection.

The wave has arrived; miners have only two choices: either go with the flow or become history.