MINING + AI: THE NEW TECHNO-INDUSTRIAL RAVE FOR MINERS
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It was believed that Bitcoin miners would end up crushed by the halving, flattened by the difficulty, ruined by electricity bills. Their death was announced with each cycle, like ghosts condemned to disappear as soon as profitability tightened. And yet, in 2025, the opposite is happening: miners have never been so alive, so inventive, so integrated into new industrial dynamics. The proof? They are starting to dance with artificial intelligence, transforming their mining farms into veritable hybrid factories where hashpower and GPUs, blocks and neural networks blend.
It's a fascinating sight: these metal sheds, once filled only with ASICs heating up to produce Bitcoin, are becoming multifunctional data centers. Servers lined up like soldiers, connected to Nvidia GPUs, swallowing datasets to run generative AI, cloud computing, and deep learning models. In short, miners have understood that mining alone is cyclical, sometimes brutal, but that it can be coupled with another technological revolution that is exploding in parallel: AI.
Take Iren, formerly Iris Energy, for example. In one quarter, its revenues jumped 228%. Not thanks to a magical halving, not thanks to a drop in difficulty, but because they integrated AI into their strategy. Iren became an “Nvidia Preferred Partner,” a label that is not insignificant. This means they have priority access to the world’s most sought-after GPUs, the A100, H100, and other computing monsters that cost more than a car. As a result, 10,900 GPUs are now running in their facilities, alongside Bitcoin ASICs. And the magic happens: revenues explode, investors flock, and the stock price climbs.
On the other hand, Cipher Mining, another player in the sector, is announcing a crazy expansion: a 2.6 gigawatt infrastructure, organized in several phases, with Phase I already operational and Phase II under construction. Their idea? To no longer be just a “Bitcoin miner,” but to become a “digital infrastructure company,” in other words, a company that exploits both mining and AI computing. Here again, the DNA of the miner meets that of the data center. And that changes everything.
Because, deep down, miners have always had two unique advantages: power and cooling. They know how to find cheap electricity, sometimes even free when there's a surplus. They know how to build infrastructure capable of dissipating monstrous heat. These are exactly the two conditions needed to run AI. Large companies are fighting to find GPUs and kilowatts, but miners already have them. What made them fragile, their dependence on power and specialized hardware, suddenly becomes their superpower.
Of course, the die-hard maximalist might get annoyed: “Bitcoin doesn't need to mix with the whims of Silicon Valley.” That's true. Bitcoin, in and of itself, stands on its own. But look at it another way: these miners aren't betraying the protocol. They're funding it. They're using AI to generate additional revenue that allows them to continue securing the network, even when the BTC price goes through a calmer period. In short, AI becomes a crutch, a cycle shock absorber. It's a survival insurance, and therefore a reinforcement of the network's resilience.
And there's more. Behind this convergence lies a magnificent irony. AI is often presented as a centralized technology, owned by a few behemoths like OpenAI, Google, or Meta. But if Bitcoin miners get involved, then the infrastructure itself becomes decentralized. You could see a future where mining farms also become distributed AI computing farms, accessible as open sources, powered by renewable or surplus energy. Distributed AI on the mining architecture may be the utopia that reconciles two worlds we thought were opposed.
The economic dimension is just as interesting. The mining market has always been ruthless: those who don't optimize disappear. But by leveraging AI, miners are accessing a new windfall. And not just any windfall: companies are willing to pay fortunes for GPU computing, because demand far exceeds supply. It's a rush comparable to that of oil or gas, except here it's graphics cards that are becoming the new black gold. Miners, accustomed to managing massive fleets of hardware, are perfectly positioned to take advantage of this scarcity.
Some will say it's a bubble, that AI is a fad, that it will all end like the dotcom craze. Maybe. But it doesn't matter. Because even if AI were to collapse tomorrow, the infrastructure built will remain. And it will still be used to mine Bitcoin. The risk is therefore limited, while the potential is enormous. It's pure asymmetry: heads you earn more, tails you continue as before. Miners love this kind of deal.
And for the clear-headed maximalist, this opens up an additional perspective: Bitcoin is not an isolated island, it is a hub. It attracts other innovations, absorbs them, and diverts them to strengthen its own security. We've already seen this with energy: mining farms that stabilize power grids, absorb excess dam power, and revive devastated industrial regions. Now we see it with computing: mining as the engine of distributed AI. This is proof that Bitcoin is not a sterile machine, but a living organism, evolving and adapting.
Of course, we shouldn't be naive. The giants entering this game—Nvidia, hedge funds, and banks—aren't out to defend individual sovereignty. Their goal is to maximize profits. And they'll use mining as just another brick in the wall. But regardless of their intentions, the side effect is the same. More infrastructure, more security, more hashrate, and therefore a more robust Bitcoin. Whether it comes from purist cypherpunks or opportunistic capitalists, the result is the same: the protocol is strengthened.
And let's not forget a juicy detail: every time miners invest billions in GPUs or infrastructure, they do so with an implicit belief that Bitcoin will be here tomorrow. No banker puts 2.6 gigawatts on the table for a dead protocol. Every data center that is built is physical, material proof that Bitcoin is not an abstract dream but a reality that is shaping the industry. It is a materialization of the future, block by block, server by server. So, the next time you hear that “mining is not sustainable,” think of Iren and Cipher Mining. Think of these farms that power both Bitcoin and artificial intelligence. Think of this unlikely marriage between a censorship-resistant currency and a technology that learns to imitate humans. It is perhaps the most explosive duo of the century: free money and automated intelligence. And it's playing out now, in sheds full of cables, fans and flashing green lights.
In 2025, miners aren't dying. They're mutating. They're adapting. They're inventing. And while commentators continue to predict their demise, they're already building the next layer of the future. Bitcoin has found an unexpected new ally: AI. And together, they're orchestrating an industrial rave that won't stop anytime soon.
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