Why Bitcoin Miners Are Winning The AI Data Center Arms Race

By Frank Holmes of U.S. Global Investors

Monday, February 2, 2026 5:24 PM EST

Image Source: Pixabay

Since ChatGPT burst onto the scene in 2022, artificial intelligence (AI) has moved from science-fiction to reality. For many, AI has become a necessity.

The transformation has been swift. Nearly every company now wants to integrate generative AI into their business model, while governments are scrambling to develop sovereign AI infrastructure.

Wall Street has taken notice, rewarding the companies behind the technology shift handsomely. According to JPMorgan, between 65% and 75% of the S&P 500’s returns since 2022 have come from just 42 companies involved in generative AI.

The surge has sparked an arms race for GPU-powered data center capacity. The numbers are staggering. Goldman Sachs forecasts that data center energy usage will increase 175% by 2030, while Deloitte believes AI power demand in the U.S. could grow from 4 gigawatts in 2024 to 123 gigawatts by 2035. To put things in perspective, that’s equivalent to powering 90 million to 100 million homes.

U.S. Power Demand from AI Data Centers Could Grow More Than 30x by 2035

Big Tech Can’t Build Fast Enough

But here’s the catch: building Tier III data centers—the kind powerful enough to support AI—can take years. When you factor in land acquisition, zoning, permitting, power substation construction and more, traditional development timelines simply can’t keep pace with demand.

This is precisely where Bitcoin miners enter the picture.

Take HIVE Digital Technologies, where I serve as Executive Chairman. Over the years, we’ve deployed thousands of ASICs—application-specific integrated circuits—across Canada, Sweden and Iceland. But we were building more than just “Bitcoin factories.” We were also engineering adaptable digital power “shells,” complete with industrial-grade infrastructure, redundant power system and access to low-cost, renewable energy.

Now, these Tier I shells are being upgraded to Tier III, AI-ready data centers in a fraction of the time traditional builds require. As I said in a recent tweet, Tier I data centers aren’t just for mining Bitcoin; they’re the keystone layer of AI, cloud and digital sovereignty, forming the physical backbone on which Tier III AI hyperscalers can be built.

“Tier I data centers are not single-purpose Bitcoin factories; they are flexible industrial power shells that anchor everything, mfg control systems and logistics platforms to energy trading infrastructure—forming the physical key backbone for Tier III AI hyperscalers! pic.twitter.com/piZdlYJeVo
— Frank Holmes (@bulldogholmes) January 23, 2026

From Side Hustle to Main Business

What started as a side hustle for many miners is now transforming into a full-fledged business model. I hope you agree that the economics are compelling.

In 2025 alone, public Bitcoin miners signed over $65 billion worth of AI and high-performance computing (HPC) contracts with hyperscalers like Amazon and Microsoft, according to CoinShares. The asset management company projects that AI infrastructure can generate three times the revenue per megawatt compared to Bitcoin mining. Coindesk goes even further, reporting that AI workloads can deliver up to 25 times more revenue per kilowatt-hour than mining, depending on the application.

With numbers like these, it’s no surprise that an estimated 70% of mining companies have now pivoted to include AI infrastructure in their portfolios.

Bitcoin Miners’ Strategic Advantage: Power, Land and Speed

The secret weapon Bitcoin miners bring to the table is that they already control the inputs.

According to a Bernstein report, miners have secured over 14 gigawatts of power, much of it in areas with access to hydro, wind or solar energy. They’ve also strategically built in low-cost, rural areas with large tracts of land, perfect for AI expansion.

And because the substations, transformers, cooling system and the rest of the critical infrastructure are already in place, miners can cut data center deployment times by as much as 75% compared to traditional players like Oracle or Alphabet. In a market where GPU supply chains are tight and competition is fierce, the advantage of time is invaluable.

The Infrastructure Play of a Generation?

Commercial builders are catching on to the incredible demand for compute. According to FMI, construction of offices, hotels and warehouses is projected to decline this year, while data center construction is set to rise 23%. AI demand is lifting it to over 6% of all nonresidential building activity, up from 2% in 2023.

Projected Annual Change in Construction Spending, 2026

HIVE’s BUZZ Strategy

At HIVE, we saw this shift early and acted decisively. Last year, we officially launched BUZZ HPC, which now operates across Canada and Sweden.

BUZZ is converting our Boden, Sweden facility—originally built for Bitcoin mining—into a Tier III, liquid-cooled AI data center that will house 2,000 NVIDIA GPUs, purpose-built for training and inference.

Meanwhile, in Toronto, we’ve acquired a 7.2-megawatt site, and we’re upgrading it to a Tier III+ facility to support sovereign AI infrastructure for governments and other large institutions.

Exterior photo of Buzz HPC'S 7.2 MW Toronto Data Center

Our roadmap is ambitious: up to 11,000 GPUs by 2026, deployed across Sweden, Ontario and New Brunswick, all powered by renewable energy and designed for rapid growth.