Another Bitcoin Miner Shifts To AI: Core Scientific Offloads 1,900 BTC

bitcoinistPublished on 2026-03-04Last updated on 2026-03-04

Abstract

Core Scientific, one of the world's largest public Bitcoin miners, is accelerating its strategic pivot toward artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC). According to its recent SEC filing, the company sold 1,900 BTC in January 2025 for $175 million, reducing its holdings from 2,537 BTC to just 630 BTC. It expects to sell substantially all remaining Bitcoin in Q1 2026. The firm has reduced its operational hashrate from 20.1 EH/s to 17.9 EH/s and does not plan further large-scale mining equipment purchases. Instead, capital is being redirected toward HPC infrastructure. This shift reflects a broader industry trend, with other major miners like Bitfarms and Bitdeer also transitioning toward data centers and AI compute services. Bitfarms’ CEO stated that converting even a small site to GPU-as-a-service could generate more income than its entire Bitcoin mining history. Despite the strategic shift, Core Scientific remains a top-10 public Bitcoin miner. Bitcoin is currently trading around $68,200.

Core Scientific is the latest in the line of Bitcoin miners accelerating a pivot toward AI, selling 1,900 BTC and signaling that more is coming.

Core Scientific Expects To Sell All Of Its Bitcoin Holdings In Q1 2026

Core Scientific has filed its annual report with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and it reveals key insights about the direction that the company is taking right now.

Originally a Bitcoin mining-focused firm, Core Scientific is among the largest public miners in the world, but recently, the firm has been making a push into the AI compute business.

At the end of 2024, the company had a total computing power or “Hashrate” amounting to 20.1 exahashes per second (EH/s). The 2025 annual report suggests that this metric has dropped to 17.9 EH/s as the AI expansion has occurred.

Not just that, the report also noted that Core Scientific expects to monetize substantially all of its Bitcoin holdings during 2026, with the majority of sales occurring within the first quarter. This selling has already begun, as the firm announced in its Q4 2025 earnings call that it sold over 1,900 BTC for $175 million in January.

Before the sale, the firm held 2,537 BTC, but now, that figure has dropped to just 630 BTC. Considering the SEC filing, Core Scientific plans to eventually part with these remaining tokens as well.

So, where are the funds from the BTC sales going? Not mining, it seems. The company noted in the filing:

Aside from the miners received in 2025 and those expected from Block, we do not anticipate entering into new large-scale bitcoin mining equipment procurement agreements as we continue to shift capital allocation toward HDC infrastructure

While Core Scientific has pulled back on its Hashrate over the course of 2025, the firm remains among the top 10 public BTC miners, according to data from BitcoinMiningStock. With expansions stopping in favor of the AI pivot, though, it only remains to be seen how long the company will maintain relevance as a miner.

How the BTC mining firms compare against each other in terms of operating Hashrate | Source: BitcoinMiningStock

A push into the High-Performance Computing (HPC) business is actually something that’s being witnessed across the Bitcoin mining industry at the moment. Bitdeer, Cango, and Bitfarms, placed first, fifth, and tenth on the top 10 list, respectively, are all making a pivot to datacenters.

Bitfarms, in particular, plans to wind down its mining facilities over the course of 2026 and 2027, signaling a complete exit from the space. Ben Gagnon, the firm’s CEO, believes the pivot to be highly lucrative, explaining:

Despite being less than 1% of our total developable portfolio, we believe that the conversion of just our Washington site to GPU-as-a-Service could potentially produce more net operating income than we have ever generated with Bitcoin mining.

BTC Price

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading around $68,200, up more than 6% over the past week.

Looks like the price of the coin has overall moved sideways over the last few days | Source: BTCUSDT on TradingView

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