The AI gold rush has entered its infrastructure phase. Manufacturers across the data center and computing supply chain are signing deals worth billions, not millions, to secure their place in what’s shaping up to be the most capital-intensive buildout in tech history.

Applied Digital, a company that once primarily served the crypto mining world, just became Exhibit A for the scale of this pivot. The firm has locked in a roughly $7.5 billion lease for 300 megawatts of AI and high-performance computing capacity at its Delta Forge 1 facility, with a 15-year term. That was followed by an additional $5.2 billion lease for 210 MW at Delta Forge 2. Combined, these agreements push Applied Digital’s total contracted revenue above $31 billion, with the potential to reach $73 billion if renewals kick in.

The great migration from mining to AI

Applied Digital isn’t alone. An entire cohort of Bitcoin mining companies is pivoting hard toward AI infrastructure, and the numbers are staggering. By late 2025, industry-wide AI and HPC contracts originating from Bitcoin miners reached approximately $65 billion.

The logic is straightforward. Bitcoin miners already own the three things AI companies desperately need: real estate, power capacity, and cooling infrastructure. Repurposing a mining facility for GPU clusters is a lot faster than building one from scratch.

Mining revenue is becoming a sideshow for these transitioning firms. Projections indicate that revenue from Bitcoin mining will fall below 20% for companies making the switch by the end of 2026. That’s a remarkable inversion for businesses that, just two years ago, derived nearly all their income from proof-of-work computation.

Hyperscalers and the CHIPS Act accelerate the buildout

The deal-making frenzy extends well beyond former crypto miners. Google and SpaceX signed a deal worth approximately $920 million monthly to secure GPU clusters.

On the manufacturing side, the CHIPS Act is driving massive capital commitments. Amkor, a major chip packaging firm, is investing roughly $2 billion in an advanced packaging facility in Arizona. Advanced packaging, the process of stacking and connecting chips in sophisticated configurations, has become one of the tightest chokepoints in the AI supply chain. Amkor’s Arizona expansion is a direct response to that constraint.

What this means for investors

The bull case is compelling. Companies locking in 15-year leases with contracted revenue above $31 billion are building the kind of predictable cash flow profiles that attract institutional capital. That’s a fundamentally different proposition than the revenue volatility of Bitcoin mining, where income swings with hash rate, energy costs, and token price simultaneously.

The risk side of the ledger deserves attention too. Applied Digital’s potential $73 billion revenue figure assumes renewals that won’t happen if the market contracts. There’s also a concentration risk worth flagging. When a handful of hyperscalers like Google represent massive chunks of contracted revenue, losing even one anchor tenant could be devastating.