Bitcoin miners are increasingly selling or repurposing power infrastructure for artificial-intelligence and high-performance-computing workloads as data-center electricity demand accelerates. Global AI data-center demand reached approximately 29.6 gigawatts by the end of 2025, roughly 200 times the 2022 level, creating intense competition for grid capacity. Bitcoin’s network hashrate (the computing power securing the network) fell from more than 1.14 zettahashes per second to between 868 and 900 exahashes per second by mid-to-late 2026, a decline of about 15% to 21% from its peak. Publicly traded Bitcoin miners have signed between $70 billion and $90 billion in AI and HPC hosting contracts, with some operators projecting that AI could generate as much as 70% of their revenue by the end of 2026. Hyperscale Data suspended mining at its Michigan facility in September 2026 while pursuing a potential $1.2 billion AI contract. The 2024 Bitcoin halving reduced block rewards by half, while Bitcoin’s price volatility after a peak near $126,000 further squeezed mining margins. Miners retain an advantage because they control more than 27 gigawatts of planned U.S. power capacity, often with established grid connections, but VanEck estimates a $50 billion near-term funding gap for the transition. Only about 25% of leased capacity has been delivered. New York’s moratorium on new or expanding data centers exceeding 50 megawatts adds a regulatory obstacle, and investors are watching whether miners can raise capital, secure partnerships and meet the higher uptime and performance requirements of AI hosting. A continued hashrate decline could also concentrate Bitcoin’s remaining mining capacity among fewer operators.