Bitcoin mining stocks fell on March 26 after Microsoft canceled plans to invest in new artificial intelligence data centers in the US and Europe, citing a potential oversupply. Shares of crypto miners including Bitfarms, CleanSpark, Core Scientific, Hut 8, Marathon Digital, and Riot decreased between 4% and 12% in response to this news. Analysts noted that the mining industry is shifting towards AI data-center hosting to expand revenue amid pressures from reduced Bitcoin mining revenues following the April 2024 halving. Microsoft’s halt on data center construction follows a trend of canceled leases and delayed capacity boosts over the past six months, indicating a slowdown in their data center investments. TD Cowen analysts highlighted that these abandoned projects would have produced significant power for AI workloads. The adjustment in Microsoft's strategy underscores the current volatility and challenges in both the AI and cryptocurrency markets.

Source 🔗