Ex-OpenAI Researcher Bets ₱58.75 billion ($1 billion) on Bitcoin Miners for AI Power
Leopold Aschenbrenner's ₱323.14 billion ($5.5 billion) hedge fund holds close to 20% of its portfolio in Bitcoin mining companies. The 24-year-old's real bet isn't on Bitcoin itself—it's on the energy infrastructure and grid access these miners control, which AI companies desperately need.
Key Takeaway
Bitcoin miners are becoming AI infrastructure plays — their grid access matters more than their hash rate.
Leopold Aschenbrenner runs Situational Awareness LP, a ₱323.14 billion ($5.5 billion) fund that now holds close to 20% of its portfolio in companies like Core Scientific, Iris Energy, Cipher Mining, Riot Platforms, and Hut 8. The 24-year-old was fired from OpenAI in 2024 over an alleged information leak.
His bet isn't about Bitcoin. It's about power.
Blocksbridge founder Nishant Sharma said a miner's true value has always been in its energy infrastructure and grid access. In the current market, the underlying energy infrastructure often carries a higher valuation than the Bitcoin it could potentially produce. Because traditional data center lead times take three to five years, the existing power-ready assets held by miners are extremely valuable for an industry struggling to keep up with demand.
Core Scientific signed a 12-year contract with AI cloud provider CoreWeave expected to generate ₱587.54 billion ($10 billion) in revenue. Iris Energy is targeting over ₱29.38 billion ($500 million) in annualized AI cloud services revenue, while Riot Platforms leased data center space to AMD for 10 years.
The 2024 Bitcoin halving cut block rewards in half, squeezing miner profits at exactly the moment AI companies started hunting for power. Training GPT-4 consumed over 12 megawatts — enough to power approximately 12,000 homes. Sharma said Aschenbrenner's allocation across miners like Iris Energy demonstrates the logic of this infrastructure play. Aschenbrenner did not return requests for comment.
This article was written based on reporting from Dlnews.
