Bitcoin miners are aggressively pursuing AI data-center colocation contracts, leveraging their existing power capacity and rapid deployment capabilities to serve hyperscalers facing a surging buildout. According to speakers at the H.C. Wainwright 28th Annual Global Investment Conference on September 14, 2026, hyperscalers are expected to spend over $1 trillion on AI next year alone, while miners have already secured more than $160 billion in AI colocation deals.
The seven miners discussed — CleanSpark, MARA Holdings, Soluna Holdings, Bit Digital Energy, Bitdeer, Core Scientific and WhiteFiber — collectively have line-of-sight to more than 14 gigawatts of total power capacity. The annual AI compute infrastructure market could absorb about 15 gigawatts per year, underscoring the scale of the opportunity.
Capital requirements for these projects are steep. A 100-megawatt facility can require $1.2 billion to $1.4 billion in capital, generating $100 million to $150 million in net operating income and up to $2.4 billion in asset value. Infrastructure costs have climbed sharply: Bitcoin mining setups typically cost $1 million to $1.5 million per megawatt, while direct liquid-cooling infrastructure rose from about $4.5 million per megawatt in late 2023 to roughly $8 million by June 2024, $10 million to $10.5 million for 2025 deployments, and an estimated $12 million to $13 million for 2027 deployments. Labor costs are also elevated, with journeyman electricians earning $250,000 to $350,000 annually on data-center sites and master electricians commanding around $750,000 a year.
CleanSpark shares closed at $17.59, down 5% on the day and 62% below their 52-week high of $46.87, with a market capitalization of $744 million. Revenue surged 52% to $93 million over the prior twelve months, with gross profit margins of 86% and negative free cash flow of $341 million. Wall Street price targets range from $32 to $50. The company holds more than $1 billion in Bitcoin and has about $400 million in largely untapped Bitcoin-backed credit lines across 35 sites.
CleanSpark secured a $6.6 billion, 20-year triple-net lease with an investment-grade tenant, equating to roughly $330 million in annual revenue. Its Sandersville, Georgia site features 11 exahash of mining capacity and a 250-megawatt energized substation with 122 acres of additional land; the first data hall is expected in December 2027. In Cheyenne, Wyoming, the company won an 110-megawatt contract against a trillion-dollar hyperscaler competitor by deploying immersion-cooled mining within 90 days. In Texas, CleanSpark announced 585 megawatts of its 885-megawatt exclusivity as batch zero base load.
MARA Holdings Chairman and CEO Fred Thiel said miners offer a quick path to solving power shortages for hyperscalers, frontier-model providers and neoclouds. MARA took majority control of Exaion, a French subsidiary of EDF, in March 2024, and holds the Matagorda and Rockdale sites, each with capacity exceeding 500 megawatts, targeting two lease signings by year-end 2024.
Soluna Holdings has 6.3 gigawatts of power assets across 30 projects, with 1.6 gigawatts in active development and over 200 megawatts of existing Bitcoin hosting. Its Katy II campus in southeast Texas is a 350-megawatt site with the first 100 megawatts under preparation, while Project Dorothy 3 in northwest Texas is a 300-megawatt campus supported by a wind-farm acquisition.
Bit Digital Energy acquired Mossten Infrastructure on April 6, 2024. Its Hood County, Texas site carries an initial 17-megawatt AI data-center letter of intent, with Phase 2 reaching 74 megawatts and eventual capacity of 111 megawatts. The site has confirmed 600 megawatts of natural gas generation capacity through two 12-inch and one 20-inch gas lines.
Bitdeer's CFO Michael Potter outlined a neocloud business in Malaysia with a 10-megawatt facility serving two customers, 20 more megawatts planned, and 65 megawatts announced. The initial 10-megawatt facility is projected to generate about $800 million over five years, with a path to 95 megawatts and more than $7 billion in five-year revenue. Other sites include 10 megawatts in Washington, 50 megawatts in Tennessee and 40 to 50 megawatts remaining in Tydal, Norway.
Core Scientific co-founder and CDO Russell Cann noted Texas received 474 gigawatts of data-center requests. The company signed its first AI colocation deal in February 2024, converting a small air-cooled site in 45 days. A June 2024 CoreWeave deal has 450 to 500 megawatts turned on or under construction, and an AMD agreement carries about $5 billion in net revenue commitment with 2,000 megawatts of critical IT load across three sites.
WhiteFiber, which went public in August 2024 as a pure-play AI infrastructure company, announced about $500 million in cloud-service deals recently. Its Enscale contract is worth $865 million for a 1-million-square-foot facility in North Carolina. In Quebec, the company operates Montreal 1 with 20 customers, converts Montreal 2 from a pharmaceutical capsule factory, and completed Montreal 3 — a mattress-factory-to-Cerebras-AI-campus project finished in six months. In North Carolina, NC1 has 50 megawatts online for Enscale with a path to 99 megawatts, while NC2 and NC3 represent about 60 megawatts with deposits placed.
