BlockBeats News, August 18th, as the price of Bitcoin fell and mining profitability continued to be under pressure, Bitcoin mining companies shifting towards AI and High Performance Computing (AI/HPC) are now receiving higher valuations and more stable income expectations.

Over the past year, the stock prices of TerraWulf (WULF), IREN, and Cipher Digital (CIFR) have all more than doubled, while MARA Holdings (MARA), which shifted to AI later, experienced a roughly 40% decline during the same period. Currently, the Bitcoin mining hash price has dropped from about $63 per PH/s in July of last year to around $31.8, causing more mining companies to shut down equipment. The Bitcoin network's hash rate has also dropped from 1.14 ZH/s to around 900 EH/s, a decrease of about 21%.

According to CoinShares data, as of the first quarter of 2026, mining companies with AI/HPC contracts have an average enterprise value multiple of around 12.3 times, while pure Bitcoin mining companies are only at 5.9 times. During the same period, the total AI/HPC contract size signed by the industry has reached about $700 billion.

Recently, the transformation of mining companies into AI has further accelerated. Riot Platforms signed a 20-year lease agreement with Anthropic last week, with the contract value of about $9.1 billion. The market believes that the truly scarce assets of mining companies are not Bitcoin itself, but low-cost electricity, data center infrastructure, and large-scale computing operation capabilities that can be repurposed for high-growth computing businesses such as AI.

However, there is still room for a revival of pure Bitcoin mining. CoinShares estimates that if the Bitcoin price returns to its historical high of around $126,000 in October of last year, the hash price could rise to around $59 per PH/s, significantly improving the mining company's profitability.