AI/HPC Data Center Infrastructure Costs Are 10–20 Times Higher Than Bitcoin Mining

Infrastructure costs for AI/HPC data centers are estimated to be 10–20 times higher compared to Bitcoin mining. This is due to the requirements for high reliability, cooling, and power supply needed for complex computational tasks.

Hive Digital Technologies notes that retrofitting existing mining facilities to support AI/HPC can cost from $5 to $7 million per megawatt of capacity. In contrast, building a Bitcoin mining farm is significantly cheaper.

The high costs are driven by the need to ensure uptime exceeding 99.9%, power redundancy, and complex cooling systems. This makes entering the AI/HPC field significantly more capital-intensive compared to cryptocurrency mining.