The AI gold rush has entered its infrastructure phase. Manufacturers across the data center and computing supply chain are signing deals worth billions, not millions, to secure their place in what’s shaping up to be the most capital-intensive buildout in tech history.
Applied Digital, a company that once primarily served the crypto mining world, just became Exhibit A for the scale of this pivot. The firm has locked in a roughly $7.5 billion lease for 300 megawatts of AI and high-performance computing capacity at its Delta Forge 1 facility, with a 15-year term. That was followed by an additional $5.2 billion lease for 210 MW at Delta Forge 2. Combined, these agreements push Applied Digital’s total contracted revenue above $31 billion, with the potential to reach $73 billion if renewals kick in.
The great migration from mining to AI
Applied Digital isn’t alone. An entire cohort of Bitcoin mining companies is pivoting hard toward AI infrastructure, and the numbers are staggering. By late 2025, industry-wide AI and HPC contracts originating from Bitcoin miners reached approximately $65 billion.
The logic is straightforward. Bitcoin miners already own the three things AI companies desperately need: real estate, power capacity, and cooling infrastructure. Repurposing a mining facility for GPU clusters is a lot faster than building one from scratch.
