Bitcoin miners become AI data centres as Wall Street pays

Some companies used to make money by mining Bitcoin, which means running huge banks of computers that solve math problems.

To do that, they built enormous buildings with lots of electricity power and big cooling systems to stop the computers from overheating.

Now, companies that build smart computer programs called AI need exactly those same things.

One AI company, named Anthropic, made a deal to give a Bitcoin mining company called Riot Platforms billions of dollars to use its buildings, power and cooling.

The deal is worth $9.1 billion, and Riot's shares went up 25 per cent right after it was announced.

Anthropic is borrowing a huge amount of money, about $71 billion, to get computer chips.

It also pays another company, xAI, about $1.25 billion every month to use one of its giant computer centres in Memphis.

AI is using up so much power and space that it is taking over buildings built for Bitcoin mining.

Some people worry this is too much because AI projects are even competing with cities for electricity and water.