Anthropic has forged a landmark partnership with Google and Broadcom to secure multiple gigawatts of next-generation computing capacity, slated to come online in 2027. This significant commitment underscores the company's accelerated revenue growth, which has surged to a $30 billion annual run rate from $9 billion at the end of 2025. The burgeoning demand for AI computing power is now directly competing with bitcoin mining for the same limited resources, including grid connections, land permits, cooling infrastructure, and affordable electricity.
A recent estimate by a Cambridge tracker suggests that bitcoin mining consumes approximately 13 to 25 gigawatts of continuous power globally, depending on hardware efficiency assumptions. Anthropic's ability to secure multiple gigawatts from a single deal, in addition to its existing capacity across AWS Trainium, Google TPUs, and Nvidia GPUs, highlights the rapid emergence of AI as a peer-level competitor for the same energy infrastructure that miners rely on. Furthermore, other companies like OpenAI are also building out their infrastructure portfolios, spanning multiple cloud providers and chip platforms.
The aggregate AI compute buildout has become one of the largest sources of new electricity demand in the United States, coinciding with the period when bitcoin miners are deciding whether to mine bitcoin or rent their infrastructure to AI companies. This decision is increasingly skewed in favor of renting to AI companies, as evidenced by Core Scientific's conversion of a significant portion of its mining capacity to AI hosting through a deal with CoreWeave. Other miners, such as Iris Energy and Hut 8, have also expanded their AI and high-performance computing revenue.
The financial dynamics of mining versus renting to AI companies are also shifting, with a bitcoin miner running a gigawatt of capacity earning revenue that fluctuates with bitcoin's price and network difficulty, whereas renting the same capacity to an AI company earns a contracted rate with predictable cash flows. At current prices and difficulty levels, the AI rental option often proves more lucrative.
The rapid expansion of Anthropic's customer base, with the number of business customers spending over $1 million annually on Claude doubling to over 1,000 in less than two months, underscores the growing demand for AI computing power. While this shift does not necessarily signify the demise of bitcoin mining, the miners that survive the current cycle may need to adapt and transform into infrastructure companies that happen to mine bitcoin on the side while renting their primary asset, affordable power at scale, to the burgeoning AI industry.