AI Is Taking Power, Not Bitcoin Place, Says ViaBTC CEO

Artificial intelligence is changing the Bitcoin mining industry by increasing demand for electricity, data centers, land and investment. But ViaBTC CEO Yang Haipo says AI will not push Bitcoin mining out of the market.

Instead, the two industries will compete for resources while Bitcoin mining moves toward cheaper and more flexible power sources.

In a recent analysis, Yang said Bitcoin mining has already gone through a major adjustment. Network hashrate rose above 1.1 zettahashes per second (ZH/s) in October 2025 before falling to more than 900 exahashes per second (EH/s) several times this year.

Mining difficulty also recorded major declines, falling 11.16% in February and another 10.09% in June. At the same time, large mining companies are moving into AI and high-performance computing (HPC).

Mining Companies Are Moving Into AI

The economics of mining are driving this shift. Core Scientific reported a negative 56% profit margin from its own Bitcoin mining in the second quarter, while its>These numbers show why mining companies are turning toward AI infrastructure.

However, AI is not directly taking Bitcoin mining machines. Bitcoin ASICs are built to run the SHA-256 algorithm and cannot simply be converted into AI servers. GPU-based Bitcoin mining is also largely uneconomical today.