Bitcoin mining firms are accelerating their transition toward artificial intelligence infrastructure, with some shutting down domestic mining operations entirely while others pursue massive supply contracts aimed at capturing value from the AI compute boom.
Keel has shuttered all of its United States bitcoin mining operations as the company continues to pivot toward artificial intelligence infrastructure, according to The Block. The move represents a definitive break from the company's previous core business, following a broader industry pattern of miners repositioning themselves as suppliers of AI infrastructure rather than cryptocurrency operators. Keel's decision to cease all domestic mining activities underscores the growing strategic realignments facing the sector as firms seek more stable revenue streams outside of bitcoin's volatile hash price economics.
The pivot to AI infrastructure has already yielded significant market reactions for some operators. Riot Platforms saw its stock jump 25% in after-hours trading following the announcement of a $9.1 billion artificial intelligence deal reportedly struck with Anthropic, The Block reported. The agreement includes two five-year extension options that could increase the total potential contract value to $16.1 billion, representing one of the largest known infrastructure supply agreements in the mining sector's transition to AI hosting. The substantial valuation attached to the contract highlights investor enthusiasm for mining firms that successfully secure long-term supply agreements with major AI developers, contrasting sharply with the compressed margins currently plaguing traditional bitcoin extraction operations.
However, the transition has not uniformly boosted shareholder value across the sector. Bitdeer experienced a 15% decline in its share price despite reporting revenue growth and continued progress on its own artificial intelligence infrastructure pivot, The Block noted. The company has increasingly focused on becoming a provider of AI infrastructure, expanding its operations beyond its core bitcoin mining business. The divergent stock performance between Riot and Bitdeer suggests that investors are specifically rewarding firms that announce concrete, high-value supply contracts with established AI customers while remaining skeptical of transitions that have not yet produced similarly definitive revenue commitments.
The strategic shift reflects a fundamental restructuring of the mining industry's business model, moving from asset-heavy cryptocurrency extraction to infrastructure-as-a-service arrangements for artificial intelligence compute. As these firms repurpose their existing data center capabilities and energy contracts for machine learning workloads, the market appears to be drawing sharp distinctions between those with secured long-term supply agreements and those still navigating the transition.