AI’s race for US energy butts up against bitcoin mining

U.S. technology companies are pursuing energy assets held by bitcoin miners as they race to secure a shrinking supply of electricity for their rapidly expanding artificial intelligence and cloud computing data centers. Those data centers are driving the fastest U.S. power demand growth since the start of the millennium, outpacing grid expansions and leaving giant technology companies, like Amazon (AMZN.O), opens new tab and Microsoft (MSFT.O), opens new tab, to scavenge for vast amounts of electricity. The electricity scramble is jolting the energy-intensive cryptocurrency mining industry. Some miners are making huge profits leasing or selling their power-connected infrastructure and sites to tech, while others are losing access to the electricity needed to stay in business. “The AI battle for dominance is a battle being had by the biggest and best capitalized companies in the world and they care like their lives depend on it that they win,” said Greg Beard, CEO of Stronghold Digital Mining (SDIG.O), opens new tab, a publicly-traded bitcoin mining company. “Do they care about what they pay for power? Probably not.” Data centers could use up to 9% of total electricity generated in the U.S. by the end of the decade, more than doubling their current consumption, as technology companies pour funds into expanding their computing hubs, the Electric Power Research Institute said in May. Currently, data centers account for about 1%-1.3% of global electricity consumption, versus crypto mining’s roughly 0.4%, according to the International Energy Agency. That disparity is expected to grow. Analysts expect 20% of bitcoin miner power capacity to pivot to AI by the end of 2027. Over the past year, bitcoin miners and AI data center owners have increasingly vied for the same power assets and contracts, executives from over half-dozen publicly traded U.S. crypto mining companies told Reuters. Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA.O), opens new tab, the world’s biggest publicly traded bitcoin miner, was among those eyeing a nuclear-powered data center owned by Talen Energy in Pennsylvania, two sources familiar with the situation said. “We are always willing to talk with anyone who is looking to sell a data center,” Marathon said, without confirming specific interest in the site. Amazon, with a market capitalization of more than 350 times the size of Marathon, bought the center in a deal announced in March and secured enough electricity to power nearly all the homes in New Mexico.