Grayscale plans to reposition one of its cryptocurrency investment funds toward artificial intelligence, reflecting growing demand for computing infrastructure beyond digital assets.
Announced on Friday, the Grayscale Bitcoin Miners ETF (MNRS) is expected to become the Grayscale AI Compute ETF on or around Sept. 15, 2026. At the same time, its benchmark, the Indxx Bitcoin Miners Index, is expected to adopt the new name Indxx High Performance Computing Index.
The changes will shift the fund away from primarily tracking Bitcoin mining companies. Marathon Digital Holdings (NASDAQ: MARA), Riot Platforms (NASDAQ: RIOT) and Core Scientific (NASDAQ: CORZ) rank among its current holdings.
Instead, the renamed ETF will target businesses that provide the technology supporting AI development. Those companies include operators of data centres, computing hardware manufacturers and other high-performance computing firms.
Additionally, the move follows a broader shift among Bitcoin miners seeking new sources of revenue. Several companies already operate large data centres and energy infrastructure originally built for cryptocurrency mining. They can adapt many of those facilities to process AI workloads as demand for computing capacity continues to rise.
Meanwhile, Riot Platforms and Marathon Digital have explored opportunities to supply computing power for AI applications. Their existing infrastructure gives them a potential advantage as technology companies expand AI services and require more processing capacity.
MNRS launched in January 2025 to give investors exposure to Bitcoin mining companies and the wider mining ecosystem. However, Grayscale’s new direction reflects the growing overlap between cryptocurrency infrastructure and AI computing as both industries compete for advanced hardware, reliable electricity and large-scale data centre capacity.
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Worldwide AI spending could reach USD$2.5T in 2026
Artificial intelligence infrastructure has rapidly become one of the largest investment themes in the global technology sector, attracting hundreds of billions of dollars in spending as companies race to build the computing power needed for AI applications.
Research firm Gartner forecasts worldwide AI spending will reach approximately USD$2.59 trillion in 2026. More than half of that total, roughly USD$1.43 trillion, is expected to go toward infrastructure such as data centres, servers, networking equipment and specialized processors that power AI systems.
At the same time, Gartner expects spending on data centre systems alone to climb to about USD$788 billion this year. This reflects the growing demand for facilities capable of training and running increasingly complex AI models.
Major technology companies continue to drive much of that investment. Firms including Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Meta (NASDAQ: META) have committed tens of billions of dollars to expand AI infrastructure, with industry analysts projecting combined capital expenditures could approach USD$1.2 trillion in 2027.
The rapid buildout has also created new opportunities for Bitcoin mining companies. Many miners already operate large-scale data centres with significant power capacity, cooling systems and high-performance hardware. As cryptocurrency mining becomes more competitive, several companies have begun adapting those assets to support AI and high-performance computing workloads.
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