CoinShares’ Q2 Bitcoin mining report, published September 15 and covering 12 listed miners, shows that most of the sector’s disclosed artificial intelligence and high-performance computing (HPC) capacity is still under construction rather than generating tenant payments.

A backlog mostly still under construction

CoinShares estimates that listed miners have disclosed more than $100 billion in AI-related backlog—contracted future revenue that has not yet been earned. At the end of June, that backlog generated approximately $1.1 billion in annualized AI and high-performance computing revenue. However, only about 550 megawatts of roughly 4 gigawatts of contracted capacity was billing a tenant at that point—approximately one in seven contracted megawatts.

The remaining capacity consisted largely of facilities still being built, handed over or accepted. The mining business is helping drive the push to complete those projects. Bitcoin closed the June quarter at $58,400, while the average cash cost to mine one bitcoin across the listed group was approximately $75,500, according to CoinShares—meaning the group, on average, spent more cash to produce a coin than that coin was worth at quarter-end. The firm estimates that AI hosting generates roughly $1.5 million in annual profit per megawatt, compared with about $0.5 million for mining.

Conditions have since eased. CoinShares said hashprice—the industry’s running measure of revenue earned per unit of mining power—recovered as Bitcoin climbed back to around $77,000. The equity market has also already reflected much of the sector’s shift: miners with AI or HPC contracts trade at an average of 12.9 times forward sales, a valuation multiple based on projected revenue over the coming year, compared with 3.7 times for miners without those contracts, according to CoinShares. Much of that premium is tied to capacity that is not yet producing rent.

Three stages across five miners

The five companies with the most disclosed progress occupy different positions on the path from signing a contract to billing a tenant.

Stage 1: Still building

• Hut 8: 949 MW contracted at new campuses, with none billing yet.
• TeraWulf’s Anthropic lease: 401 MW signed for delivery beginning in late 2027.

Stage 2: First rent

• Cipher Digital: Its first Black Pearl capacity began generating payments in August.
• IREN: The first 50 MW of Horizon was delivered to Microsoft in August.
• TeraWulf’s Lake Mariner: 102 MW of critical IT capacity was earning rent by July.

Stage 3: Billing at scale

• Core Scientific: Approximately 485 MW was billing by October 13, out of about 1.1 GW leased. The company reported $136.7 million in colocation revenue—income from housing and powering hardware owned by customers—for the June quarter.

Core Scientific has the largest amount of billing capacity among the five companies. Its July results showed 395 MW billing at the end of June. On October 13, the company said billing had reached approximately 485 MW after 48 MW came online in Dalton, Georgia. That update did not include a new revenue figure. Core Scientific’s results and October update are available through its second-quarter 2026 results release and company update.

TeraWulf appears in two stages because its projects follow separate timelines. Its Lake Mariner campus in New York generated $31.9 million in HPC lease revenue during the June quarter. By contrast, the Anthropic lease announced with its August results follows a contractual schedule that begins in the second half of 2027. Until then, those megawatts are contracted capacity, not delayed capacity. TeraWulf’s disclosures are included in its second-quarter 2026 results and June-quarter filing.

Cipher Digital’s Black Pearl rent began after its June quarter ended, according to the company’s second-quarter business update. As a result, the September quarter is the first period expected to include that revenue. IREN reported $70.5 million in AI cloud revenue for the June quarter, before its Microsoft deployment.

Rent and cloud revenue are different

Four of the five companies primarily lease buildings and power to tenants that supply their own chips. IREN operates an AI cloud: it purchases GPUs and sells computing time. That model can generate more revenue per megawatt, but it also leaves IREN responsible for hardware costs, replacement requirements and the risk that equipment remains idle.

IREN’s figures therefore require a different interpretation. Its August filing reported $1 billion in operating annualized recurring revenue as of August 26 and $4 billion in contracted ARR for 2026 capacity. The company’s notes state that ARR is not GAAP revenue—the measure recognized under standard accounting rules—and that recognized revenue may be materially lower while capacity is being commissioned and accepted. IREN’s SEC filing provides those disclosures.

The figures reported by lessors also have limitations. TeraWulf’s June-quarter filing says its HPC lease revenue includes electricity passed through to tenants and certain fit-out services, making the reported amount larger than the underlying rent alone. In addition, a tenant that has begun paying has not necessarily filled its servers. Billing confirms that the contract is operating, but not how intensively the hardware is being used.

Who is financing the buildings?

Construction spending begins well before rental revenue. CoinShares estimates that converting a mining site into AI-grade space costs between $8 million and $15 million per megawatt, compared with less than $1 million per megawatt for mining construction.

Hut 8’s August release paired 949 MW of contracted capacity with $7.5 billion in project financing, equivalent to approximately $7.9 million per megawatt. IREN’s filing says Microsoft-related financing and customer prepayments cover about 96% of the GPU spending associated with that contract. That figure covers the chips, not the broader platform.

Cipher returned to the market in October with an $850 million zero-coupon convertible note—a bond that pays no regular interest and can be converted into shares under specified terms—allocating part of the proceeds to additional equity in its Barber Lake project. The offering was described in the company’s announcement. Coindoo has also examined miners’ AI funding arrangements in a separate report.

When a company describes a project as funded, four questions help clarify what that means:

1. How much construction spending remains? Lenders may require reserves in addition to the remaining build cost.
2. Which credit facilities remain undrawn, and what conditions apply? A facility dependent on milestones is not the same as cash already available.
3. Do customer prepayments cover chips, buildings or both? IREN’s 96% figure applies only to GPUs.
4. Does the financing cover one phase or the entire campus? Cipher’s October capital raise shows that the answer can change.

Implications for bitcoin miners

As mining sites become data centers, company results depend increasingly on tenant credit, construction schedules and financing costs, rather than solely on the price of Bitcoin. The transition can also produce write-downs. IREN recorded a $450.4 million impairment on mining hardware in the June quarter, according to CoinShares.

Several miners have sold bitcoin from their treasuries to help finance construction. Coindoo previously covered those transactions in its report on miners liquidating BTC for AI. Those sales provide cash once and do not represent recurring income.

CoinShares expects the sector’s AI revenue run rate to more than double by its next report. The following company schedules provide milestones against which that expectation can be assessed:

• September-quarter results: The first quarter to include Cipher’s Black Pearl rent and IREN’s Horizon deployment.
• Through 2026: IREN’s commissioning of capacity associated with its $4 billion in contracted ARR.
• Q2 2027: Hut 8’s first River Bend data hall.
• Q3 2027 and H2 2027: Hut 8’s first Beacon Point hall, and the beginning of delivery under TeraWulf’s Anthropic lease.

This article is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice.