Bitcoin mining facilities were built to crunch numbers for cryptocurrency. Now they’re some of the most sought-after real estate in the artificial intelligence boom.
Key Takeaways:
- CoinShares’ bitcoin mining ETF WGMI now also targets AI data centers and power companies, not just miners.
- Listed bitcoin miners have announced over $70 billion in cumulative AI and HPC hosting contracts.
- TeraWulf’s AI hosting revenue passed its bitcoin mining income for the first time in early 2026.
Miners spent a decade wiring up power-dense sites for bitcoin, according to a new CoinShares report. Those same properties are now catching the eye of AI companies hunting for data center space.
See more: Bitcoin Miners Already Owned What the AI Economy Is Short Of
Global data center electricity use is projected to roughly double by 2030. It would climb from about 485 terawatt-hours in 2025 to 950 TWh, according to the International Energy Agency. In fact, artificial intelligence is the biggest driver.
Meanwhile, U.S. data centers should drive almost half of electricity demand growth through 2030, the agency said.
Chips aren’t the bottleneck anymore, per CoinShares. What’s scarce is energized land: sites with secured power connections, high-voltage infrastructure and cooling systems. And those sites can take years to permit and build.
That’s exactly the kind of property miners already own, and AI firms are now paying for it. Core Scientific, Inc. (CORZ), for example, signed 12-year hosting agreements with CoreWeave, Inc. (CRWV). The deals are worth $10.2 billion in total contract value, according to the report.
Also, IREN Limited (IREN) landed a five-year AI cloud contract with Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) in Texas. The deal is worth $9.7 billion, the report said.
Hut 8 Corp. (HUT) signed a 15-year lease for its Beacon Point campus in Texas, valued at $9.8 billion. Across the sector, miners have now announced over $70 billion in cumulative AI and HPC contracts, according to CoinShares.
WGMI Expands Beyond Pure Bitcoin Mining
CoinShares responded by updating the CoinShares Bitcoin Mining ETF (WGMI ). The fund now invests at least 80% of its net assets in bitcoin mining and digital power companies. That’s a shift from its prior focus solely on bitcoin miners, according to the fund’s prospectus.
Eligible holdings now include hyperscale data centers and semiconductor suppliers. The list also covers power generation, energy storage, and high-performance and quantum computing companies tied to AI, the prospectus states. However, WGMI can still put up to 20% of assets into broader bitcoin plays.
The shift doesn’t erase risk, according to CoinShares. Mining stocks stay leveraged to bitcoin’s price and can fall harder than bitcoin during downturns. In addition, AI hosting adds new exposures: reliance on a few AI customers and execution risk on multiyear construction.
TeraWulf Inc. (WULF) shows how far the shift has gone. Its AI hosting revenue overtook its bitcoin mining income for the first time in the first quarter of 2026. That marks a full reversal from the business’s original model, according to the report.
For more news, information, and strategy, visit the CoinShares Crypto ETF Hub.
