The future of the data center industry is being shaped by a use-case pivot among crypto miners, as well as by energy innovations within the crypto industry that make compute more efficient, say two Macquarie Group analysts.

In an interview with Cool Vector, Macquarie senior equities analyst Paul Golding and Charles Yonts, Head of Sustainability Research for Asia at Macquarie, describe the recent evolution of major crypto mining players like CoreWeave, Galaxy Digital, Applied Digital and Core Scientific, and speak on the history of how these companies evolved into data center industry players.

The conversation is particularly relevant in light of the recently announced acquisition of Core Scientific by CoreWeave.

Based in Asia, Yonts also describes the importance of the region’s supply chain and how the data center industry there is positioned to grow quickly, thanks in part to practices developed by crypto miners.

Other important trends discussed by Yonts and Golding:

Crypto’s shift to AI data infrastructure is driving a new phase of growth. Crypto mining firms are leveraging their existing power-intensive sites to serve high-performance computing (HPC) demand—especially AI workloads—which has revitalized gross margins and unlocked new business models.

The crypto industry was a forerunner in renewable energy and grid flexibility. Bitcoin miners pioneered partnerships with remote and stranded renewable power sources and embraced demand response—offering a blueprint for energy-conscious data center expansion in the AI era. “Bitcoin mining data centers can partner with stranded power renewables that have not had an interconnect set up yet... and be an off-take partner to these relatively remote facilities generating power," says Golding.

Latency-agnostic crypto operations enabled early adoption of remote clean energy. Because crypto workloads are less sensitive to latency than traditional cloud services, crypto companies have long located in rural, power-abundant regions—setting an early example for sustainable AI infrastructure, if this latency can be overcome with advances in fiber and networking technology. “The lack of sensitivity to latency has enabled them to have access to very cheap renewables, which is absolutely crucial," says Yonts.

In the new data center race, time to power is the ultimate advantage. As AI demand surges, developers and hyperscalers prioritize how fast energy can be delivered to a site—outpacing concerns over cost or carbon intensity—making speed the defining competitive edge. “Today, it's time to power, time to power, and time to power," Yonts adds.

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Macquarie provided the following company disclosures as of July 17, 2025:

Core Scientific (CORZ US) - Macquarie Group Limited together with its affiliates owns a net long of 0.5% or more of the equity securities of Core Scientific Inc.

CoreWeave (CRWV US) - Macquarie managed or co-managed a public offering of securities of CoreWeave Inc in the past 12 months, for which it received compensation.