ANALYSIS: Bitcoin Miners Face a Choice Between Grabbing Mining Market Share or Going All-in on Artificial Intelligence

Oct 8, Bitcoin mining companies are now facing a decision: grab mining market share or go all-in on artificial intelligence? From a return on equity perspective, that's where the mining industry stood in September. MARA Holdings (MARA), Riot Platforms (RIOT), and CleanSpark (CLSK), some of the largest miners by market capitalization, all increased their share of total bitcoin mining volume last month compared to August. These companies have stronger balance sheets and larger mining operations, which helped them cope with the decline in mining profitability caused by the halving of bitcoin in April. 
However, investors are not paying a premium for these stocks as they continued to underperform in September. Meanwhile, miners focused on artificial intelligence and HPC computing, such as Core Scientific (CORZ), TerraWulf (WULF) and IREN (IREN), outperformed Bitcoin in September. Additionally, the recent approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF in the U.S. has reduced investor interest in mining stocks. Instead, investors are rewarding mining companies that are diversifying their revenues by dedicating some of their data centers to hosting AI and HPC-related machines. (CoinDesk)