CleanSpark Unveils $6.6B AI Data Center Lease as Miners Pivot Beyond Bitcoin

Bitcoin mining and digital infrastructure executives outlined how access to energized power, land and existing substations is positioning their companies to pursue artificial intelligence and high-performance computing deployments, while also warning that much of the widely cited data-center demand may not translate into viable projects.

During an H.C. Wainwright panel moderated by Mike Colonnese, head of the firm’s Crypto and Digital Infrastructure Research franchise, executives from mining, hosting and AI infrastructure companies discussed the shift from bitcoin-focused operations toward AI colocation, cloud services and GPU-as-a-service offerings.

Power Access Drives AI Infrastructure Opportunity

Fred Thiel, chairman and CEO of MARA Holdings, said bitcoin miners historically focused on deploying computing equipment at the lowest possible power cost. That model generally required investment of roughly $1 million to $1.5 million per megawatt for infrastructure and compute, he said.

AI and high-performance computing deployments require substantially more capital, but can create higher revenue and asset values per megawatt, according to Thiel. He said miners hold a strategic advantage because many have land and operating power already in place, which can provide a faster route for hyperscalers, frontier-model providers and neocloud operators seeking capacity.

Russell Cann, co-founder and chief development officer at Core Scientific, said the costs of direct-liquid-cooled data-center development have risen rapidly. He said the company initially estimated costs of roughly $4.5 million per megawatt for early projects, compared with approximately $10 million to $10.5 million per megawatt for facilities turned on this year and $12 million to $13 million per megawatt for projects expected to begin operating in 2027.

Cann attributed much of the increase to labor and long-lead equipment, including transformers and switchgear. He also identified site power, local opposition, equipment availability and skilled labor as major development constraints.

Companies Pursue Colocation and Cloud Models

Sam Tabar, CEO of WhiteFiber, said the company operates both cloud and colocation businesses. WhiteFiber began with a cloud contract before it was spun out as a pure-play AI infrastructure business, a move Tabar said was intended to improve access to financing and attract more institutional shareholders that were not interested in crypto exposure.

WhiteFiber acquired Enovum to add a specialized team experienced in retrofitting facilities for AI customers, Tabar said. He cited projects converting a mattress factory for Cerebras and a 1 million-square-foot North Carolina facility for Nscale. The Nscale facility is operating and WhiteFiber has begun billing the customer, he said.

Michael Potter, chief financial officer of Bitdeer, said the company is using colocation at larger locations while developing a neocloud and GPU-as-a-service business at smaller sites. Bitdeer’s colocation agreement in Tydal, Norway, involves approximately 121 critical IT megawatts, with tenant Volta responsible for GPUs while Bitdeer builds the data center.

Potter said Bitdeer is beginning with a 10-megawatt neocloud site in Malaysia that has two customers, followed by additional 20-megawatt and 65-megawatt deployments. Customer prepayments covering 50% or more of GPU costs are expected to reduce financing needs, he said.

Recent Leasing and Development Plans

Cleanspark (NASDAQ:CLSK) Chairman and CEO Matt Schultz said the company has assembled a portfolio of 35 sites and recently signed a 20-year, triple-net lease valued at $6.6 billion for a Sandersville, Georgia, location. The agreement is expected to generate $330 million of annual revenue, according to Schultz.

Schultz said the site has a fully energized 250-megawatt substation and that CleanSpark secured an additional 122 acres with community support. The tenant also received short-term exclusivity for up to 885 additional megawatts in Texas. CleanSpark expects the first data hall under its Georgia agreement to be delivered in December 2027.

Core Scientific’s Cann said the company recently announced a roughly 500-megawatt agreement with AMD. He said AMD also has rights to the next 2,000 megawatts at Core Scientific sites in Hunt County and Pecos, Texas, and Muskogee, Oklahoma. Cann described the current agreement as a 15-year triple-net lease at $125 per megawatt or a modified gross structure at $145 per megawatt.

Soluna Holdings CEO John Belizaire said his company develops data-center campuses near existing wind and solar plants whose energy is not fully delivered to the grid. Soluna has more than 6.3 gigawatts of power assets across 30 projects and is actively developing about 1.6 gigawatts, he said. The company is negotiating a lease for the initial 100 megawatts of its planned 350-megawatt Kati Two campus in southeast Texas and is also developing the approximately 300-megawatt Dorothy 3 project in northwest Texas.

Executives Debate AI “Bubble” Concerns

Panelists generally rejected the idea that AI infrastructure demand is broadly a bubble, though Core Scientific’s Cann drew a distinction between demand for actual compute and speculative development claims. He said roughly 5 gigawatts of rack space is delivered annually against approximately 15 gigawatts of annual chip demand, but warned that some power requests may be duplicative or unsupported by actual transmission, substations or fuel supply.

“There really is 15 GW a year of demand,” Cann said, while adding that the far larger volume of requests in markets such as Texas should be scrutinized to determine which projects are real.

Schultz said CleanSpark sees capital availability, energized power and delivery certainty as the major constraints. Thiel said inference workloads, including those based on open-source or open-weight models, could increasingly move to enterprise, private-cloud and near-premises environments.

The executives also emphasized that bitcoin mining remains useful during the transition. Schultz said mining can generate revenue while companies await AI development or customer deployment, while Thiel said miners can relocate ASIC equipment as AI tenants occupy converted facilities. Potter said Bitdeer expects bitcoin mining to remain a source of cash generation, although the company’s primary focus is increasingly on AI data-center development.

About Cleanspark (NASDAQ:CLSK)

CleanSpark, Inc (NASDAQ: CLSK) is a bitcoin mining and energy technology company headquartered in Henderson, Nevada. The company owns and operates data centers that use specialized computing equipment to validate transactions on the Bitcoin network and earn bitcoin rewards.

CleanSpark focuses on developing and expanding mining infrastructure, with operations in the United States, including facilities in Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee and Wyoming. Its activities include acquiring and deploying mining equipment, managing data-center operations and securing reliable, cost-effective power for its facilities.

The company historically developed software and energy-management solutions before shifting its primary focus toward bitcoin mining.