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Bitcoin miners in Texas are rapidly reinventing themselves as AI infrastructure providers—and tech giants are lining up, The Wall Street Journal writes.
IREN, once a struggling crypto-mining developer, has surged to a $13 billion valuation after signing a $9.7 billion deal to host Microsoft’s AI workloads at its rural Childress site. The shift reflects a broader pivot as miners leverage their biggest asset: early, hard-won access to massive electricity capacity in West Texas.
Amazon and Google are striking similar agreements with Cipher Mining and TeraWulf to secure grid-connected sites amid one of the largest data center build-outs in U.S. history.
For miners, AI offers relief from shrinking crypto margins; for hyperscalers, it provides scarce power and speed to market. But the pivot also intensifies strain on Texas’ grid, where data-center demand now dominates interconnection queues.
