North America is now learning important lessons from Bitcoin in AI-first competition
Serial entrepreneur Kevin O’Leary said the mining industry is about building large-scale infrastructure close to sustainable energy.
“It all depends on power,” O’Leary, the star of “Sharktank”, said in an interview. “Whether you’re talking about AI data centers or bitcoin mining. Now, we see these projects often come with both.”
O’Leary said the accidental overlap between the Bitcoin mining business and AI data center requirements has become a focus area for policy makers in Washington, D.C. and prompted institutional investors to dive in the best case scenario.
New York State, for example, initially lacked the right policy, and despite its massive amount of hydraulic power in the grid of Niagara Falls, it is now “trying to restore its Mojo” in terms of Bitcoin mining and AI.
“I think some states, like New York and others, have figured out these are two new regulated industries, AI and Bitcoin mining and cryptocurrencies, and they feel they’ve missed it.”
Today, there are more ideal options in places like West Virginia, North Dakota, Mississippi and Texas. BITZEROis a green energy Bitcoin mining and data center company operating in North America, Norway and Finland. “Alberta, Canada, is a great example because they have a rich low-cost, stranded natural gas,” he said.
Profit squeeze
Bitcoin miners are forced to diversify their business into AI and cloud computing, as the recent halving cuts the mining rewards in half, thus squeezing out their profit margins in an already super competitive market. Core Science and other companies (CORZ) Has brought the intersection of mining and AI to the mainstream, other miners, e.g. Honeycomb Numbers (honeycomb) and Cabin 8 (cabin) A large number of data centers have been pivoted to AI to diversify revenues.
Bitcoin mining and marriages that host AI computing in data centers become an easy way to achieve this diversity, as miners are already leveraging the demand for AI-enabled data centers to rapidly increase the amount of electricity needed. (A single query requires 2.9 watt hours of power, while Google search requires 0.3 watt hours. International Energy Agency)
Large Bitcoin mining operations are often located near a rich energy supply, with industrial-scale power generation connection infrastructure already established and operated. This allows the transformation of Bitcoin mines using AI-functional graphics processing units (GPUS) A potentially attractive proposition – despite AI data centers Need more infrastructure.
“Silly” tariff war
O’Leary said he was optimistic when he spoke to policymakers, and he spoke to U.S. Home Secretary Doug Burgum, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt and Alberta Prime Minister Danielle Smith. Canadian O’Leary says Smith has caught the attention of the Bitcoin mining and AI data center industry When she reveals The province has 200 trillion cubic feet of gas at its fingertips.
That’s why the tariff war between the United States and Canada is “stupid”, O’Leary said, noting that China is building new coal-fired power plants every week in preparation for the “AI war.”
“We’re not only talking about bitcoin mining, but about the competitiveness of the country,” O’Leary said.
“We have to bring all of this home, but our biggest problem is strength. There is no more power on the domestic grid. NADA. So if you want one gigawatt In any state, forget it. You have to figure out a way to build your own strength from natural gas, nuclear power, or something. ”
Read more: AI is here, but that doesn’t mean Bitcoin miners have done it
