Bitcoin Miners Are Fleeing to AI: So Why Is the Hash Rate Surging?

Some of the largest publicly traded BTC miners are cutting production and redirecting power toward the highly popular, increasingly concentrated sector of artificial intelligence (AI), or, if President Trump’s demand comes to fruition, perhaps we should call it super-intelligence.

Interestingly, the network’s hash rate has rebounded sharply from its summer lows and now sits less than 9% below its all-time high, suggesting that other operators are quickly filling the gap.

5 Big Names Are Dropping Out

CryptoQuant’s latest report shared with CryptoPotato found that five major listed miners, namely IREN, Core Scientific, Bitfarms, TeraWulf, and Cipher, have shifted toward AI and high-performance computing and produced 47% fewer BTC this year than during the same period in 2025. In bitcoin terms, their production fell from 13,263 last year to 7,075 units.

Production at IREN, Core Scientific, and TeraWulf fell by over 50% each, while Bitfarms’ production fell 49%. Cipher’s production decreased by the smallest percentage at just 18%. In contrast, those companies have announced more than $50 billion worth of AI and HPC leases.

IREN, for example, has a $9.7 billion contract with Microsoft and expects its mining fleet to be effectively decommissioned by year-end. Core Scientific has leased large amounts of power to CoreWeave and AMD, while TeraWulf, Cipher, and others have committed infrastructure to AI customers.

As we recently reported, the same industry transformation was evident for months, including mining stocks being valued as power and AI-infrastructure plays rather than pure Bitcoin businesses.

Hash Rate Is Still Recovering

Although all of the above sounds quite unfavorable for the broader Bitcoin ecosystem, especially the network health, the actual data shows that the hash rate has been climbing hard lately. The metric had dumped by over 18% from its November 2025 peak to under 900 EH/s on August 6, which was its deepest drawdown since the 2021 Chinese mining ban.

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However, it has rebounded by 11.7% in the following months, with more than half of that recovery occurring during the first three weeks of October.

CryptoQuant explained that the hash rate is fungible. While at least 35 EH/s is estimated to be leaving with the aforementioned companies, the overall Bitcoin network has added 105 EH/s since the August low. New-generation machines operated by private miners, sovereign-backed operations, and non-US companies are replacing the capacity being retired.

Miners who had stayed within the Bitcoin ecosystem have regained ground as well. MARA, CleanSpark, Riot, HIVE, and American Bitcoin increased combined output by 16% year-over-year, helping offset some losses from their AI-transitioning peers.

Miner conditions have also improved with BTC’s price recovery from under $60,000 to over $80,000. Miner revenues have rebounded sharply, and extreme outflows have disappeared, reducing the pressure on operators to sell BTC just to cover expenses.