I truly feel that a major shift is happening among Bitcoin miners when I look at recent industry trends.

Looking back, until 2024, miners were really in a tough situation. Halving, crypto winter, high volatility. But once 2026 arrives, the situation changes completely. Companies that secured the two critical resources—electricity and chips—early on now dominate the industry.

The trigger was simple. As global demand for AI computing exploded, the bottleneck shifted from "chip shortages" to "power shortages." Miners who noticed this quickly converted their land and power infrastructure, which they had previously secured, into AI facilities. In other words, those once laughed at for being unreliable due to high volatility have now transformed into "landlords" of essential infrastructure.

Specifically, Iris Energy owns a portfolio of 2,910 megawatts of power and land, making it an industry leader with a market cap of $14 billion. Riot Platforms converted 1.7 gigawatts of approved power capacity into strategic hosting centers and recently signed a large lease agreement with AMD. TeraWulf and Hut 8 also secured contracts exceeding $6 billion each, transforming their mining facilities into high-value AI assets.

But the key point is what happens from here. Loans to miners, once considered risky, have become low-risk thanks to payment guarantees from major companies like Google and Microsoft. These companies guarantee rent payments financially, enabling the industry to access the bond market at an advantageous interest rate of about 7.125%. They can raise up to 85% of project costs from JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs.

Significant technological shifts are also underway. NVIDIA’s Blackwell GB200 NVL72 platform consumes up to 120 kilowatts per rack, forcing the industry to adopt liquid cooling technology. To address heat and land scarcity, new approaches like underwater data centers have emerged. Shanghai’s Lingan 2.0 project has achieved an energy efficiency of 1.15, well above the national target of 1.25.

However, a major obstacle exists. Chips based on the Blackwell architecture will be nearly sold out by mid-2026, and only companies that secured orders in 2024 have a competitive edge. CoreWeave, preparing for an IPO with a valuation of $35 billion, is backed by a large order from OpenAI worth $22.4 billion. Latecomers are almost excluded from the core AI infrastructure market.

Ultimately, the shift from "Bitcoin mining" to "AI digital infrastructure hubs" is not just an industry evolution but has become a key element of global industrial policy. The isolated mining model is over. Instead, a new form is emerging—energy transition companies that flexibly allocate power assets for either Bitcoin mining or AI training based on demand.

As gigawatt-scale AI factories become permanent parts of the power grid, the industry is now questioning whether pure mining models can survive and how the power grid itself will respond.