Renowned investor and "Shark Tank" personality Kevin O'Leary said Wednesday that artificial intelligence data centers and Bitcoin BTC/USD mining are “competing” for scarce electricity in North America.
O’Leary Says US Doesn’t Have Much Power
During an interview with Moneywise, O’Leary weighed in on the power situation in the region, noting that there isn’t much left on U.S. grids.
“Because of the insatiable demand for AI data centers, we’ve got a bit of a problem going on here. There is no power on the grid anymore,” O'Leary, also known as "Mr. Wonderful," said.
He added that setting AI data centers and Bitcoin mining operations risks raising local power rates, which regulators avoid.
“There’s a lot going on here because you’ve got two competing forces,” O’Leary said, highlighting a power struggle between Bitcoin miners and high-performance AI data centers.
See Also: Canaan Stock Surges On US Order For 50,000 Bitcoin Mining Machines
AI Projected To Leave Bitcoin Mining Behind
The Electric Power Research Institute projects that U.S. data center electricity consumption could reach up to 9% of total electricity generation by 2030, more than double its current consumption.
Moreover, analysts estimate 20% of Bitcoin miner power capacity will shift to AI and high-performance computing by the end of 2027.
As a result, several Bitcoin miners are increasingly allocating energy for AI data centers, repurposing their existing power infrastructure and selling or leasing capacity to AI firms.
CoreWeave Inc. (NASDAQ: CRWV), which started as an Ethereum ETH/USD mining company, has pivoted to AI cloud services, securing key partnerships with Nvidia Corp. NVDA and OpenAI.
Price Action: At the time of writing, BTC was exchanging hands at $120,330.57, up 1.16% in the last 24 hours, according to data from Benzinga Pro.
Global X Data Center & Digital Infrastructure DTCR, an ETF that tracks the performance of companies that operate data centers, closed up 1.44% at $21.12 during Thursday’s regular session. Shares have surged 27% year-to-date.
Similarly, Grayscale Bitcoin Miners ETF MNRS, which provides exposure to Bitcoin Miners, closed 3.39% higher at $42.89. Year-to-date, the ETF was up 60%.
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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of Benzinga Neuro and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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