Bitcoin mining companies are sequentially shutting down mining equipment and switching to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure businesses. As mining profitability worsens and demand for AI data centres surges, miners are accelerating moves to use their existing power and site infrastructure for new businesses.

On Sept. 15 (local time), blockchain outlet Cryptopolitan reported that cases are emerging in which listed bitcoin miners have effectively halted mining operations. Some companies are shifting toward AI and HPC businesses while accepting penalty fees to unwind contracts for next-generation mining equipment.

A 대표 example is Keel, previously known as Bitfarms. Keel halted all operations at its Panther Creek, Scrubgrass and Sharon mining sites on June 29. It had already stopped operating its Moses Lake facility in April.

CoinShares' 2026 second-quarter mining report projects Keel will generate no mining revenue at all in the third quarter. It is the first case among listed miners in which hashrate has effectively fallen to zero.

Costs also increased during the shutdown process. Keel posted a quarterly gross margin of minus 285 percent due to factors such as accelerated depreciation of equipment. It also sold 1,085 BTC at an average of $69,100 for about $75 million, and plans to dispose of its remaining 1,861 BTC by the end of the year.

Core Scientific is also bearing costs from shrinking its mining business. The company reportedly paid $41.9 million to terminate a contract with Block's Proto unit for next-generation 3-nanometre mining chips totalling about 15 exahash per second (EH/s).

Gross profit in its self-mining segment also fell 56 percent. Core Scientific executives said the company is operating remaining mining equipment only to the extent necessary to meet power contracts, and is working to convert facilities to other uses.

Cipher Digital also told investors it will not make additional capital investment in mining equipment. The company expects to exit the mining business by the end of 2027.

Moves to convert mining facilities into AI infrastructure are also gaining momentum. Hyperscale Data cut power used for bitcoin mining at its Dowagiac, Michigan facility on Sept. 1 and began preparing to take on AI colocation tenants.

The value of a 20-megawatt contract the company signed with a neocloud company in California exceeds $1.2 billion over 10 years. If the customer exercises an additional 32-megawatt option, the contract could expand to as much as $3 billion. Hyperscale Data Chief Executive William Horne (윌리엄 혼) explained that halting bitcoin mining allowed the site to focus its power and infrastructure on new customers.

Miners' scaling back is also being reflected in the bitcoin network's hashrate. Based on Hashrate Index tallies, average monthly hashrate fell from about 1,066 EH/s in the first quarter to 1,004 EH/s in the second quarter and 940 EH/s in the third quarter. It was down about 6.3 percent from the second to the third quarter and about 12 percent below the peak in December 2025.

Worsening mining profitability is cited as the most direct backdrop. CoinShares said the weighted-average cash cost for listed miners to produce 1 bitcoin in the second quarter of 2026 was about $75,500. Bitcoin, meanwhile, ended the second quarter at $58,400.

The situation was similar in the fourth quarter of last year. Mining costs were about $79,995 at the time, but bitcoin prices stayed around $68,000 to $70,000. As profitability deteriorated, listed miners sold large amounts of bitcoin, and more than 15,000 BTC were tallied as having come onto the market after holdings peaked.

By contrast, large amounts of capital are flowing into the AI and HPC infrastructure market. Industry-announced AI and HPC contract values have exceeded $70 billion. IREN, for example, signed a $9.7 billion contract with Microsoft, and TeraWulf signed a contract worth about $19 billion with Anthropic. Core Scientific also reportedly secured more than $14 billion in expected contract revenue through its AI and HPC shift.

In the mining industry, some view this not as a temporary downturn but as a structural change in the business model. Ethan Vera (에단 베라), chief operating officer at Luxor, assessed the trend as a "structural change, not a cyclical bottom." He explained that miners are now being re-rated not as simple bitcoin miners but as companies holding energy and AI infrastructure assets.

Peter Schiff, a bitcoin critic, also offered an opinion that AI is not necessarily positive for bitcoin. He cited that AI is an area competing for the same capital, power and data centre space as bitcoin.

There is also a view that data centre sites converted once to AI or HPC uses may find it difficult to return to bitcoin mining. Wolfie Zhao (울피 자오) of The Energy Mag pointed out that once multi-gigawatt power infrastructure is retrofitted for AI and HPC colocation, it is hard to revert to the original mining use.

He forecast that listed miners' hashrate reductions would continue quarter by quarter. The regulatory environment is also a factor pressuring miners to shift businesses. CoinShares counted at least 225 measures in 30 U.S. states that restrict or pause data centre development, with 151 still in effect. New York state implemented a halt to data centre development on July 14, the first at the state level.

Still, not all miners are giving up mining. Bitdeer chose a strategy of pursuing AI business while also mining bitcoin. Bitdeer Chief Strategy Officer Haris Bassit (하리스 바싯) said the company will maintain its mining business separately from a 16-year compute contract signed with Anthropic. It is a dual-purpose model to raise utilisation by using power and data centre capacity not covered by AI and HPC contracts for bitcoin mining.

A gap is also appearing in market assessments. The average forward revenue multiple for miners that secured AI and HPC contract volumes was 12.9 times, higher than 3.7 times for those without such contracts.

Ultimately, competitiveness in the bitcoin mining industry is shifting from simply expanding hashrate to how efficiently companies can use power and data centres. As mining profitability declines and AI and HPC demand expands, the use of existing mining infrastructure is changing.

If this shift continues, bitcoin miners may no longer be simple mining companies but could change in character into companies providing AI infrastructure based on power and data centres. At the same time, as miners' hashrate declines continue, long-term changes are expected to emerge in the industrial structure of bitcoin network mining.