Bitcoin Miners Keel Infrastructure and Riot Sell BTC to Fund AI Pivot

Two of the more closely watched names in public Bitcoin mining posted their latest numbers this week, and both point to the same trend: mining companies selling down their Bitcoin treasuries to fund a pivot toward AI and high-performance computing.

KEEL INFRASTRUCTURE COMPLETES ITS EXIT FROM MINING

Keel Infrastructure, the company formerly known as Bitfarms before it redomiciled to the United States and rebranded, confirmed on August 10, 2026, that it has finished shutting down every U.S. Bitcoin mining site it owns, clearing sites for AI and high-performance computing builds instead.

The numbers behind that shift were rough. Revenue dropped 50% year-over-year, driven by the wind-down of Bitcoin mining operations and a decline in average Bitcoin prices, landing at $30.4 million, falling short of Wall Street's $33.42 million estimate. The company posted an operating loss of $141 million, including $84 million in non-cash depreciation, against $11 million in operating income a year earlier. Net loss reached $65.0 million, and adjusted EBITDA turned negative $24 million from positive $7 million.

As part of winding down its Bitcoin position, the company sold 1,085 Bitcoin for $75 million between April 1 and August 7, leaving it with 1,861 Bitcoin as of Aug. 7, and management plans to liquidate the remaining Bitcoin during 2026. Keel is not short on cash to make the transition: total liquidity reached $819 million, split between $698 million in unrestricted cash and $121 million in unencumbered Bitcoin, boosted by a $458 million convertible senior notes offering completed in June, above the initially planned $350 million, to fund power-capacity expansion at Panther Creek and Scrubgrass. CEO Ben Gagnon has said the company is negotiating from a position of strength rather than distress.

RIOT SELLS BITCOIN TO BUILD OUT A $9.1 BILLION AI LEASE

Riot Platforms took a different route to the same destination. The company executed a 20-year data center lease with a frontier AI lab for 191 MW of critical IT capacity at its Rockdale campus, expected to generate approximately $9.1 billion in total contract revenue over the initial term, a deal CNBC has confirmed is with Anthropic, leasing 191 megawatts at Riot's Rockdale, Texas campus and transitioning Riot from bitcoin miner to AI infrastructure landlord. The agreement could grow to roughly $16.1 billion in revenue if extended for two additional five-year periods. Funding the buildout is where Bitcoin comes back into the picture. The build needs $2.1 billion to $2.3 billion, with $210 million to $460 million of equity needed before planned refinancing could cut that requirement, and Riot's plan treats Bitcoin sales as the main equity source while debt and backstop financing remain unfinished. At June 30, Riot reported 11,380 Bitcoin, with 5,821 pledged against a fully drawn $200 million Coinbase credit facility, putting 51.2% of its holdings under restriction, while 5,559 Bitcoin were not classified as restricted. Riot also sold 9,665 Bitcoin for $732.5 million during the first half of 2026.

WHY PUBLIC MINERS KEEP CHOOSING AI OVER BITCOIN

Keel and Riot are not isolated cases. Across the publicly listed mining sector, thin margins, falling transaction fees, and a Bitcoin price still well off its all-time high have made it difficult for miners to stay profitable on hashing alone, pushing company after company toward leasing power and compute to AI tenants instead. The infrastructure these miners built for cheap electricity during the bull run has turned out to be just as useful for AI data centers, and in a market where AI leases can be signed for tens of billions of dollars over twenty years, the incentive to convert Bitcoin holdings into construction capital has become difficult for boards to ignore.

What separates the miners still standing from the ones getting cleaned out is whether they can make that conversion without running out of runway first. Keel has already crossed that line entirely, and Riot is betting its Bitcoin treasury that it can get there too before the next lease payment is due.

This story comes from the Simply Bitcoin Live show. Watch the full episode.