In his State of the Union address, President Donald Trump emphasized innovation policy in an effort to ease concerns about restrictive trade measures and bolster the idea of economic resilience. While Bitcoin (BTC) briefly hit $69,000, it has since fallen 6% in less than three days.
The long-term bearish pressure on BTC has put miners under increasing stress. The “electricity cost” of Bitcoin has fallen from $71,000 in the fourth quarter of 2025 to around $53.5,000 today. This means that it is becoming cheaper and cheaper to mine Bitcoin, as inefficient miners have been forced to shut down their operations, making mining easier.
AI and data centers are changing the Bitcoin mining scene
In August 2024, VanEck released a report highlighting the growing importance of Bitcoin miners in the areas of AI and high-performance computing (HPC). They argued that miners were missing a huge valuation arbitrage opportunity.
They projected an annualized revenue of approximately $9.11 million per MW (megawatt, or 1 million watts delivered continuously, 24 hours a day for a year) for AI/HPC.
Bitcoin miners trade on average at around $4.5 million per megawatt (MW) of installed capacity, while some data center stocks trade at $30 million/MW or more. If these miners manage to move 20% of their installed capacity to AI/HPC infrastructure, they could “easily double their market capitalization by 2028.”
According to Miner Weekly, revenue per megawatt and per GPU aren’t the only metrics to consider. The bond market is another powerful lens to watch the AI and data center boom. Over the past 12 months, $33 billion in long-term senior notes have been issued by Bitcoin mining/AI infrastructure companies.
The bond market has revealed a “risk ladder” ranging from 4% for established, low-risk legacy energy giants. At the high-yield end of the spectrum, Bitcoin infrastructure companies like CoreWeave have paid speculative-grade credit of up to 9.25%.
As VanEck noted, Bitcoin miners can leverage their existing sites to host AI/HPC workloads in less than a year. Lenders valued them as growth credits, charging a considerable premium over established energy giants.
Bitcoin infrastructure giants are already taking the plunge
TeraWulf’w’s fourth quarter and full year financial and operational results showed a transition from BTC miner to AI infrastructure player. Major deals such as long-term lease commitments for 60 MW with Core42 and 380 MW with FluidStack “significantly improve revenue sustainability.”
Digital asset revenue fell in Q4 2025 compared to Q3. HPC rental revenue also reached $9.7 million, up from $7.2 million in Q3 2025.
Marathon Digital used its fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 earnings call to outline a strategic shift beyond Bitcoin mining. The centerpiece of this change was the joint venture with Starwood Digital Ventures.
MARA will bring dedicated energy, while Starwood will handle design, construction, tenant sourcing and operations. MARA can retain up to 50% ownership while having access to Starwood’s investment-grade institutional capital.
This company aims to convert its powered sites into data centers. Starwood Capital Group’s data center development platform is expected to deliver more than 1 GW of computing capacity in the near term. A path to more than 2.5 GW is in place.
As Miner Weekly rightly notes, a big question hangs over these developments. Sustained demand for AI would make premium capital acceptable. Assets would appreciate and rising income would make debt refinancing easier.
On the other hand, a drop in demand for AI would cause hyperscaler developments to lose speed. High debt would quickly become a burden.
Final Summary
- Falling Bitcoin prices and growing pains meant that Bitcoin mining companies saw their digital asset revenue fall in the fourth quarter of 2025.
- This has made it increasingly attractive, if not imperative, for large-scale miners to move some of their computing capacity to AI/HPC data centers.
