Amazon Unveils Trainium 3 as Crypto Miners Enter the AI Gold Rush

Amazon is pushing deeper into the accelerating AI infrastructure race with the launch of Trainium 3, a next-generation chip designed to challenge Nvidia’s dominance in GPU-based training. Available through AWS, the new chips promise up to 4x faster AI training speeds compared to their predecessor while maintaining the same energy footprint. With each “UltraServer” capable of running 144 Trainium 3 chips, Amazon is positioning itself as a more powerful alternative for companies training large-scale language models and other compute-intensive workloads. The move intensifies competition with Google, which analysts say currently has an 87% chance of leading the AI model race by year-end—reportedly prompting OpenAI’s Sam Altman to raise a “code red.”

But the rapid expansion of AI infrastructure faces a key bottleneck: power and physical space. That’s where major bitcoin mining firms are emerging as unexpected allies. Equipped with gigawatts of energy capacity, advanced cooling systems, and ready-made data centers, miners are repurposing their operations—especially after the 2024 Bitcoin halving cut block rewards in half. Companies like Core Scientific, CleanSpark, Bitfarms, and IREN are transforming into AI-ready infrastructure providers. IREN surged after securing a $9.7B AI cloud deal with Microsoft, while TeraWulfannounced a $9.5B AI infrastructure joint venture backed by Google.

This shift, however, comes with significant risk. Miners are borrowing heavily to retrofit facilities for AI demand, and the broader market for AI and crypto-related assets has cooled. Bitcoin (BTC) has fallen over 17% in 30 days, the CoinDesk 20 index is down more than 19%, and tech stocks remain volatile. Analysts warn that today’s AI infrastructure boom resembles previous speculative bubbles. OpenAI alone has outlined trillions in future spending, with funding gaps still unresolved.

If AI compute demand slows, Bain & Co. estimates the sector could face an $800B shortfall, putting miners and tech giants at risk of liquidity crunches similar to the 2022 crypto downturn. Despite the uncertainty, miners are betting big on a new digital gold rush—this time powered by GPUs instead of ASICs.