Institutional investors and infrastructure players are reshaping exposure to core scientific bitcoin as mining specialists pivot into AI infrastructure and treasury-focused firms add to their stacks.
Core Scientific sells 1,900 BTC to fund AI growth
Core Scientific, once primarily known for Bitcoin mining, sold roughly 1,900 BTC for $175 million in January as it accelerates its buildout of AI-ready data center infrastructure.
The move was disclosed by chief financial officer Jim Nygaard during the companys Q4 earnings call, following a prior SEC filing that showed Core Scientific held over 2,500 BTC at the end of 2025.
Following the January sale, the firm now holds fewer than 1,000 coins, marking a notable drawdown in its on-balance-sheet Bitcoin reserves even as it leans into higher-value computing services.
That transaction implies an average sale price of roughly $92,000 per coin. Moreover, Nygaard said the company acted early in the year to exploit favorable bitcoin market conditions, strengthening liquidity while keeping strategic options open.
At the time of reporting, Bitcoin was hovering around $67,000, down more than 30% from last months high of $97,000, according to price data from TradingView.
From bitcoin mining to AI and high-performance computing
The sale underscores a broader industry shift as miners with substantial power and real estate capacity reallocate resources from bitcoin mining to ai workloads and other high-performance computing services.
Core Scientific executives emphasized consistent execution across the companys ai data center expansion program, which has become the central pillar of its new growth narrative.
By the time of the Q4 call, management reported that about 350 megawatts of capacity had been energized, with nearly 100 megawatts already billing customers, signaling early revenue traction.
Furthermore, the company said customer negotiations are ongoing across several large counterparties, with some 500 megawatts of capacity under exclusivity and a pipeline of roughly 1.5 gigawatts of leasable capacity linked to real development opportunities.
Leadership reiterated a playbook focused on advancing site readiness, locking in long-lead equipment, and prioritizing creditworthy tenants backed by guarantees from hyperscalers, chip manufacturers, or other investment-grade partners.
In that context, executives expect colocation revenue growth to accelerate as additional megawatts transition from construction to billing status, supporting margin expansion over time.
Anthony Pomplianos ProCap steps up Bitcoin accumulation
While infrastructure operators like Core Scientific are reallocating resources, ProCap Financial is scaling its exposure to Bitcoin itself through active bitcoin treasury management.
On Mar. 2, 2026, the Anthony Pompliano-led firm announced it had purchased 450 Bitcoin, raising its total holdings to 5,457 coins and lowering its average purchase cost.
The acquisition, funded with approximately $35 million from ProCaps working capital account, comes amid a volatile market backdrop and follows the companys launch in 2025 as a publicly traded vehicle for institutional exposure to the asset.
With Bitcoin trading around $66,341 at the time of the announcement, ProCaps Bitcoin treasury was valued at more than $360 million, positioning it as the 19th-largest corporate holder of the asset.
This latest procap bitcoin purchase reinforces the firms ambition to be a pure-play bet on Bitcoin price performance, even as other corporates diversify into AI-focused infrastructure.
Equity buybacks and market valuation dynamics
Alongside its growing Bitcoin stack, ProCap has launched an aggressive share repurchase program to address what management views as a persistent mispricing in public markets.
Over the past 10 days, the company has repurchased 782,408 shares of its stock, aiming to close the gap between share price and net asset value, which is heavily linked to corporate bitcoin holdings.
According to the announcement, the buyback activity has already helped narrow the NAV discount, and ProCap intends to maintain the program as long as the discrepancy between its market price and net assets persists.
Moreover, ProCap has more than 82 million total basic shares outstanding and has raised in excess of $750 million from institutional backers since 2025, underscoring sustained investor appetite for Bitcoin-linked equity exposure.
Diverging but complementary strategies around Bitcoin
The latest moves from Core Scientific and ProCap highlight how different classes of companies are positioning around core scientific bitcoin, from infrastructure buildouts to balance-sheet accumulation.
Core Scientific is monetizing part of its Bitcoin holdings to finance next-generation AI and high-performance computing capacity, betting that long-term demand for compute will outpace the upside of keeping additional coins on the balance sheet.
By contrast, ProCap is leaning into Bitcoin exposure as its primary product, while simultaneously using equity buybacks to align its market valuation more closely with underlying asset value.
Taken together, these strategies illustrate how digital asset infrastructure and capital markets are evolving in tandem, with 2025 and early 2026 marking a pivotal phase for both miners-turned-AI operators and dedicated Bitcoin treasury vehicles.
Source: https://en.cryptonomist.ch/2026/03/03/core-scientific-bitcoin-ai-data-centers/
