Key Takeaways
The most valuable asset Bitcoin miners ever built may not have been cryptocurrency — it was the power infrastructure now being snapped up by AI data center developers at a premium.
AiOnX closed a $500 million deal on June 15 to acquire a 77% stake in Genesis Digital Assets, a crypto mining operator with facilities in the US and Sweden, giving the data center developer access to 1.3 gigawatts of secured capacity. The acquisition pushed AiOnX's total portfolio to 3.6 GW, as the industry races to repurpose existing power infrastructure for AI workloads.
"The US faces a shortage of electricity, and not all megawatts are created equally," Paul Prager, chief executive officer of TeraWulf, said in an interview at the New York Stock Exchange. TeraWulf, which pivoted from Bitcoin mining to AI infrastructure, signed a $19 billion, 20-year hosting agreement with Anthropic that Prager said was won through a competitive bidding process centered on access to grid power.
The scale of the conversion is accelerating. Projected capital expenditure among the 14 largest public data center operators is expected to reach roughly $750 billion in 2026, nearly double the less-than-$450 billion spent in 2025, according to industry estimates. Globally, more than 23 GW of IT capacity is currently under construction specifically for AI applications. Yet more than $130 billion worth of US data center projects experienced delays in the first quarter of 2026, with power constraints, equipment shortages and community opposition cited as the primary bottlenecks. More than half of US projects this year face holdups from a shortage of critical equipment like transformers.
The bottleneck explains why existing facilities with secured power are commanding premium valuations. A Bitcoin mining facility earning modest returns on its hardware can generate multiples of that revenue by hosting AI workloads instead, because both require massive amounts of electricity, robust cooling and locations where land and power are relatively cheap. Hut 8 entered a $9.8 billion AI lease deal, while IREN acquired Spanish developer Nostrum Group for approximately 490 MW of secured capacity to accelerate its European AI expansion.
The Power Quality Premium
TeraWulf's Kentucky facility, expected to come online beginning in 2028, illustrates the criteria hyperscalers demand. Prager said successful AI campuses require reliable generation, redundant transmission, favorable regulation and strong community relationships — factors that eliminate most available sites. The company has hired Fluor to help construct the project and said securing skilled labor and contractors is a bigger challenge than equipment procurement as hyperscale AI facilities become increasingly specialized.
Prager said TeraWulf originally entered Bitcoin mining because it already owned power assets and mining provided a flexible electricity customer, but Bitcoin's commodity-driven revenue model did not provide the predictable, long-term cash flows the company prefers. "We're not involved in Bitcoin," he said, describing AI infrastructure as a more natural fit.
What This Means for Investors
The gap between what hyperscalers want to build and what the grid can actually deliver creates a structural advantage for incumbents with secured power. With $130 billion in projects already stalled, that premium is unlikely to shrink soon. But investors should watch for risks: community opposition to data centers is growing over water usage, noise and strain on local power grids. Not every former mining operation has the right location, power quality or network connectivity to serve enterprise AI customers. Proximity to fiber backbones, redundant power feeds and compliance with enterprise security standards separate the facilities that will command premium lease rates from those that will not.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
