Bitcoin miners pay Paraguay $350 million a year, but AI is pushing them out

Paraguay’s state utility has set Dec. 31, 2027 as the final expiry for power contracts supplying about 4% of global bitcoin mining at $44 per megawatt-hour, a segment worth roughly $350 million a year to the country. The utility has signed a 15-year agreement to power a Founders Fund-backed AI campus, signaling a shift toward data-center demand over mining. The move matters because it puts a hard deadline on some of the cheapest electricity in bitcoin mining and could push miners to relocate or renegotiate. Watch for how miners covered by the expiring contracts respond as 2027 approaches and whether other low-cost power markets face similar competition from AI.