Bitcoin miners pivot to AI and HPC as cryptocurrency market slumps

As bitcoin prices remain under pressure, publicly listed cryptocurrency miners are increasingly diversifying into AI and high-performance computing (HPC) workloads. Companies including IREN Ltd. (NASDAQ: IREN), Riot Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ: RIOT), Core Scientific Inc. (NASDAQ: CORZ), HIVE Digital Technologies Ltd. (TSX: HIVE), Cipher Digital Inc. (NASDAQ: CIFR), and TeraWulf Inc. (NASDAQ: WULF) are gradually shifting capacity away from pure bitcoin mining, Visible Alpha consensus estimates show.

While revenue from HPC and AI has been modest to date, investment in infrastructure is accelerating, with analysts projecting meaningful revenue contributions from 2026 onwards. HPC is no longer a sideline: for several miners, it is expected to underpin the bulk of growth in the coming years. IREN, Terawulf, and Core Scientific, in particular, are now almost entirely focused on HPC development, with analysts forecasting these operations to drive most of the companies’ top-line growth in 2026.

Consensus projections indicate that HPC revenue will account for 13% of Riot’s total revenue by 2026. The shift is even more pronounced for other players: IREN’s HPC revenue is expected to surge to 71% of total revenue, up from 3% in 2024; Core Scientific is projected to reach 71% from 5%; HIVE to 15% from 7%; and Cipher Mining and Terawulf to 34% and 70% respectively, up from negligible contributions in 2024.

The transformation highlights the sector’s strategic pivot from cryptocurrency dependency toward AI and HPC-driven growth with miners positioning themselves as HPC infrastructure providers, offering colocation services such as power, cooling, and physical infrastructure.

This article was published by Visible Alpha, part of S&P Global Market Intelligence and not by S&P Global Ratings, which is a separately managed division of S&P Global.