$27 million per megawatt data center asset pricing emerges, benchmarking AI DC valuation against power access.

Bitcoin miners just got a fresh yardstick for their AI ambitions, and one analyst says it reveals how cheaply the market is pricing them.

Digital Realty Trust (DLR) has agreed to purchase three fully leased AI data centers in Northern Virginia from Blackstone (BX) for $3.5 billion—a transaction VanEck's Matthew Sigel assessed at approximately $27 million per megawatt. The deal features a 6.5% cap rate, 3.6% annual rent escalators, and 15-year lease terms, establishing a new benchmark for stabilized AI infrastructure. Using this transaction as a reference point, Sigel observed that miners who have signed AI-related leases are valued far below comparable infrastructure assets, despite possessing energized power capacity and development pipelines.

Sigel's analysis revealed substantial gaps in valuation. Those companies executing AI infrastructure deals are creating $15 million to $24 million per megawatt of value. By contrast, Bitcoin miners are reusing their existing infrastructure at $3 million to $12 million per megawatt, with net operating income economics of approximately $1.5 million per megawatt.

Two Bitcoin miners in particular caught Sigel's attention: Cipher Mining (CIFR) and Hut 8 (HUT), both of which have branched into AI and high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure. Applying DLR's cap rate to their disclosed net operating income and subtracting net debt, Sigel calculated that the market is assigning Cipher Mining roughly $2.9 million per megawatt for its approximately 313 megawatts of energized-but-unleased capacity, and Hut 8 roughly $2.1 million per megawatt for its approximately 443 megawatts. This values their idle capacity at 8 to 14 cents on DLR's dollar for capacity requiring only a lease, not a permit—while their development pipelines are valued at zero.

"There is no optimism in these valuations," Sigel wrote. He argued that the market is pricing the long-dated pipeline as though demand for AI infrastructure will stop, leasing rates will plummet, and the opportunity will never materialize. Yet every signed lease, every additional megawatt, and every quarter of steady GPU pricing narrows the gap.

Sigel's assessment builds on a valuation framework VanEck published earlier this month, where Sigel and investment analyst Griffin MacMaster argued that Bitcoin miners should increasingly be evaluated as AI infrastructure companies rather than solely as cryptocurrency miners.