Bitcoin miners have spent the past year convincing Wall Street that they are secretly data center companies. A June 2026 analysis from VanEck lays out both the opportunity and the credibility problem facing publicly traded miners attempting to reposition around artificial intelligence and high-performance computing infrastructure.
The math is good. The execution is not.
AI and HPC contracts generate more than three times the revenue per megawatt compared to traditional Bitcoin mining. That means the same power capacity that earns a miner X dollars in Bitcoin rewards could earn 3X or more if it is leased to an AI workload instead.
Firms including IREN, Hut 8, TeraWulf, Cipher Mining, and Core Scientific have announced multi-year contracts worth tens of billions of dollars in aggregate revenue commitments. Industry-wide, announced AI infrastructure contracts in the mining sector range from $65B to $90B as of mid-2026, according to VanEck.
Only about 25% of the AI capacity that miners have leased has actually been brought online as of mid-2026. Multiple insider share sales at key companies have amplified the skepticism. TeraWulf’s CEO sold approximately 1.59 million shares just before a major lease announcement, drawing pointed scrutiny over the timing.
