Woofun AI reports that Peter Schiff, a longtime gold advocate, declared artificial intelligence (AI) a direct competitor to Bitcoin in an August 23 post on X, rejecting the narrative that AI serves as a bullish catalyst for BTC.

The deeper driver is a resource conflict spanning three areas: investment capital, electricity, and data-center infrastructure. As of August 23, 2026, miners are leveraging their power connections, land, cooling systems, and data-center infrastructure to support other forms of computation, creating a powerful alternative destination for technology-focused capital.

Per Woofun AI, IREN has secured a $9.7 billion Microsoft agreement for AI cloud infrastructure, pivoting from its origins as a Bitcoin miner to serve large-scale computing workloads.

This shift illustrates how miners redirect resources when market economics change, utilizing power-backed infrastructure that remains valuable as demand for computing power expands.

TeraWulf signed a long-term agreement with Anthropic covering roughly 401 MW of critical IT capacity, with approximately $19 billion in contracted revenue expected over the initial term. The deal demonstrates why power availability and existing infrastructure have become strategic assets in the AI race, allowing companies to monetize power assets through AI.

Core Scientific expanded beyond traditional mining through long-term high-performance computing agreements with CoreWeave, turning portions of its power infrastructure toward AI workloads. For Bitcoin, this transition does not necessarily represent a loss, as mining difficulty adjusts automatically as network participation changes, allowing the network to continue operating even when individual miners redirect computing resources elsewhere while maintaining Bitcoin exposure through treasury holdings.