Bitcoin Miners Embrace AI to Survive Halving Crunch: Details

Bitcoin miners have been experiencing difficult moments in recent times. The Bitcoin halving in April 2024 reduced the size of rewards for mined BTC, which strained the profits of these companies.

Consequently, some of the key players have resorted to the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to survive and succeed. This shift has sparked a fascinating transformation in the industry, with some companies finding new success while others stick to their crypto roots.

This pivot to AI has reshaped the landscape for Bitcoin miners, based on recent developments. Core Scientific, once a struggling Bitcoin miner, stands out as a success story.

Core Scientific Reinvents Itself with $3.5B AI Pivot

At the end of 2022, the company reached the bottom closing with Chapter 11 bankruptcy as BTC price was low and operation costs were too high. By the beginning of 2024, it went public on Nasdaq after turning to AI.

Rather than being exclusively invested in the mining of Bitcoin, Core Scientific started renting its data centers to the Artificial Intelligence firms. It also entered a 12-year, $3.5 billion agreement in June 2024 with CoreWeave, a high-performance computing (HPC) company.

This contract enabled CoreWeave to use Core Scientific facilities in performing AI activities, which is a strong deviation compared to crypto mining. Following the move, its stock surged, particularly after CoreWeave acquisition in June of 2025.

Bitcoin Miners Turn to AI Amid Post-Halving Pressures

Another significant Bitcoin miner, Hut 8, has entered into AI too. The company introduced Highrise AI (a subsidiary that provided GPU-as-a-service) in September 2024.

Hut 8 installed more than 1,000 graphical processing units (GPUs) of Nvidia H100, which are optimized to train artificial intelligent models. The action followed a tightening in mining revenues caused by the 2024 halving, which prompted Hut 8 to diversify.

The company got a 5-year contract with fixed payments and shares in revenue, proving its interest in AI as a strategy together with its Bitcoin activities. Although AI is still a lesser aspect of Hut 8’s business, its continued attempt indicates rising behavior among miners to identify new sources of income.

Its interest in crypto was perpetuated by its acquisition of a majority stake in American Bitcoin through a firm whose major holders include Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr.

Iris Energy (previously Irn) is among other Bitcoin miners adopting AI as well. As of mid-2025, the firm had launched approximately 430 GPUs to capitalize on the increasing need for AI computational power.

Bitcoin Miner Hive Sets $100M AI Goal as Riot Takes Cautious Approach

On the same note, Hive Digital Technologies has made major achievements with its AI strategy. Hive expects to hit 100 million in terms of AI revenue in 2026, using 504 Nvidia H200 GPUs, with a further 4,000 A-series GPUs on order.

Such developments demonstrate that AI is turning out to be a profitable alternative source of revenue for Bitcoin miners, even though they still focus on the Bitcoin mining business. Still, AI is not exactly profitable for all Bitcoin miners.

Riot Platforms is a Bitcoin mining powerhouse that is still testing the waters with AI and HPC. In early 2025, Riot started considering converting 600 megawatts of its Corsicana, Texas, plant to AI applications.

This premise of 355 acres has the potential of one gigawatt of power which will eventually interest AI customers. However, Riot has yet to win significant deals in AI, and it has halted its plans to expand Bitcoin mining operations there.

Nevertheless, Riot is earning well, as its Q1 2025 mining income increased in comparison to its Q1 2024 mining income by twice the amount. It increased to $142.9 million this year in contrast to the $71.4 million last year. With 19,225 BTC, Riot is the fourth-biggest corporate Bitcoin owner, which suggests that it is in no hurry to deal with AI.

Bitcoin Miners MARA and Riot Hedge with BTC Reserves

The biggest treasury holder of Bitcoin miners, MARA Holdings, with 50,000 BTC, is also dipping its toes into AI. In early 2025 it introduced two HPC test sites totaling 30 megawatts each.

On the other hand, an ASIC-maker, Canaan, has shunned the AI trend. In July 2025, it closed its AI chip business and concentrated on mining-related gadgets only.

Canaan, currently with only 2.1% of the global ASIC market, is betting on the long-term durability of Bitcoin mining, at least in North America. This choice makes it different from competitors pursuing AI opportunities.