Cryptominers hope they can find a second life by turning their mining operations into AI farms

A GPU FARM full of GPUs. — (Image credit: Getty Images - NiseriN)

Some large-scale crypto miners are looking for new ways to make money as demand for GPU-powered mining operations has significantly decreased over the last year. Some are hoping to turn that processing power elsewhere: to help train AI.

According to Bloomberg, some crypto mining companies have pivoted their business towards high-performance computing (HPC) services for customers working with AI. And they're doing pretty well with it: Hut 8 Mining, for instance, told Bloomberg that its HPC business had generated approximately $16.9 million from its AI clients. Hive BlockChain bought $66 million worth of GPUs from Nvidia for its HPC endeavors and is projected to make about $98 million in revenue by the end of 2024.

Even Nvidia boss Jensen Huang predicts that AI models will become a million times more powerful within the next decade and expects to see the rise of "AI factories worldwide" to meet the ever-growing workload demands. And the amounts of money on the table are staggering: For example, it costs OpenAI somewhere between $700,000 to $1 million daily to operate its AI chatbot, ChatGPT.

However, converting a crypto-mining operation to high-performance computing for AI can be challenging and costly, because it often requires a significant hardware upgrade. Nvidia’s H100 Tensor Core GPUs, made for AI deep learning tasks, can cost over $10,000 each.

Some RTX 40-series GPUs, like the RTX 4090, are capable of performing serious AI tasks, but it's a relatively small part of the whole. Bitpro Consulting told Bloomberg that just 5% to 15% of existing crypto mining GPUs could be retooled for AI since only some high-end GPUs are suitable for AI work.

Jorge is a hardware writer from the enchanted lands of New Jersey. When he's not filling the office with the smell of Pop-Tarts, he's reviewing all sorts of gaming hardware, from laptops with the latest mobile GPUs to gaming chairs with built-in back massagers. He's been covering games and tech for over ten years and has written for Dualshockers, WCCFtech, Tom's Guide, and a bunch of other places on the world wide web.