Bitcoin mining companies are emerging as key players in the artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure supply chain, backed by electricity access and data centre sites.

Cointelegraph reported on May 19 that investment bank Bernstein analysed that listed bitcoin miners hold more than 27 gigawatts (GW) of planned power capacity. It said they have announced AI-related contracts totalling 3.7 GW with hyperscale cloud operators, emerging cloud firms, chipmakers and others. The contracts exceed $90 billion, it said.

The core of the analysis is that the bottleneck in expanding AI data centres is no longer just chips. Bernstein pointed to power access becoming the main constraint on adding AI data centre capacity. Approvals for new grid connections can take more than 4 years. Even in Texas, seen as a data centre-friendly region, power companies are using a "batch review" approach to manage connection queues and resource loads.

Miners are seen as relatively well positioned on this front. They already operate sites connected to the power grid and have experience handling high-density computing facilities. Tighter regulatory scrutiny of large data centres and local opposition that delays new projects are also strengths for miners with existing infrastructure.

The backdrop is the 2024 bitcoin halving. Mining rewards fell, hurting profitability, and miners began looking for new revenue sources. Bernstein said several companies are broadening their business beyond bitcoin production into developing AI data centres and high-performance computing (HPC) facilities.

It presented an example. Soluna Holdings said first-quarter revenue rose 58 percent, with much of the increase coming from its data centre hosting business. It said the share of cryptocurrency mining revenue in total revenue has become smaller. That shows miners' revenue structures are already changing.

Bernstein cited IREN as a representative example of the shift. IREN was assessed as being in a position to convert much of its business to AI infrastructure after signing a multibillion-dollar deal with Microsoft (MS). Bernstein said cooperation between IREN and MS could fundamentally change the company's business model.

U.S. power conditions are also in focus. Rand forecast in a research brief released in April that the United States will secure about 82 GW of additional net available power capacity by 2030. But it said AI data centre demand is rising quickly, and the gap may widen in the market between operators that lock in power and those that do not.

As a result, bitcoin miners' competitiveness is shifting from simple hashrate to power assets and the ability to use sites. Whether miners can go beyond defending profitability after the halving and settle in as AI infrastructure operators has emerged as the next point to watch.