Mike Alfred, the founder of Alpine Fox, during a speech at the Energy Investors Forum in Dallas, recommended that bitcoin miners refrain from direct purchases of graphics processors for artificial intelligence tasks, focusing on infrastructure development. The expert identified two main operational models. The first involves owning equipment, which provides high potential income, but comes with the risks of rapid obsolescence of chips and the need to ensure their constant loading. The second, more conservative model is a colocation, in which the site owner provides space, electricity and cooling systems, and the client places his own equipment. This approach is similar to investing in commercial real estate and makes it much easier to attract project financing. As an example of the successful implementation of this strategy, Alfred cited his investment portfolio, which includes the companies IREN and Cipher Digital, which have signed multibillion-dollar long-term contracts for the provision of cloud infrastructure and computing power.

The participants in the industry discussion emphasized that a significant part of the existing facilities for mining cryptocurrencies are not technologically ready to serve the tasks of artificial intelligence without a large-scale modernization. The founder of SATOKIE, Jay Zapata, noted that the cost of building a mining site ranges from 200 to 300 thousand dollars per megawatt, while creating an infrastructure for AI without taking into account the cost of chips requires investments of over 10 million dollars per megawatt. Typical mining facilities are often located in remote areas, built according to simplified standards and do not have the necessary redundancy, redundant fiber-optic lines and sophisticated cooling systems required for a 99.999% reliability level. In this regard, investors are increasingly evaluating mining companies not by the volume of bitcoin mining, but by the availability of affordable energy and a high-quality portfolio of land plots, which is confirmed by major transactions between TeraWulf and Galaxy Digital.

Experts consider hybrid schemes based on sites with their own electricity generation as a more sustainable alternative. The head of Upstream Data, Steve Barbour, pointed out that gas-fired power plants often have excess capacity, which mining can consume during periods of low demand, without violating service obligations to the main tenants of the AI infrastructure. However, the speakers warned of significant risks associated with long-term contracts. Compass Mining Director Shannon Squires noted that the vast majority of new sites do not meet the strict requirements of Tier 3 data centers. According to the consensus forecast of the panel participants, before the next bitcoin halving in 2028, there is a high probability of default or termination of contracts by large tenants or creditors in the artificial intelligence segment, which relies on the underlying infrastructure is a more reliable strategy.