Bitcoin Miners Offer AI Providers Quick Scaling Amid Power Grid Issues
Wall Street broker Bernstein reports that the tightening U.S. power grid is aligning Bitcoin (BTC) miners with AI developers.
- High demand from AI and digital workloads has made grid access a major constraint, with some regions facing interconnection delays of up to seven years.
- Bitcoin miners, having secured large renewable power contracts, control over 14 gigawatts (GW) of capacity, offering AI providers faster scaling options.
- Facilities owned by IREN and Riot Platforms can reduce deployment time by up to 75% compared to new projects.
- Microsoft anticipates data center shortages continuing until 2026 as cloud and AI demand exceed infrastructure growth.
- Bitcoin mining facilities, equipped with high power densities and advanced cooling, are suitable for retrofitting for AI workloads, offering cost and time advantages over new builds.
- Bernstein views miners as "strategic enablers" for AI development, naming IREN as a top pick with a $75 price target. IREN saw a 5.7% increase in early trading.