AI IS BUYING THE POWER — TETHER LOSES $120M URUGUAY MINE, 150 EH/S OFF THE NETWORK, RIOT AND KEEL PIVOT TO AI.

Tether just lost its Uruguay mine. Reuters walked through the wreckage this weekend. The state utility, UTE, cut power to two sites on July 25, 2025 after a contract fight. Tether tried to run its own mines. Tether thought a power number in the contract was a floor. UTE said it was a ceiling. One side stopped paying. The other side pulled the switch. One person told Reuters the project cost about $120 million.

The politics made it worse. Yamandú Orsi took office in March 2025. His government put new leadership at UTE. That leadership took a harder line. Tether stopped paying its electricity bills two months later. Nobody from Tether showed up to sign the revised contract. Tether’s CEO had said in June 2025 the company would be the “biggest bitcoin miner” by year-end. UTE pulled the plug one month later.

The read is simple. AI data centers want stable power. Bitcoin miners want cheap power. Uruguay is stable, not cheap. Reuters quoted mining analyst Nicolas Ribeiro: “Uruguay isn’t viable for mining.” Ribeiro said Uruguay’s reliable grid fits AI data centers better. AI can outbid Bitcoin miners on the same wire. Same US power squeeze pulling on bond desks and AI capex is pulling on the mining sector too. This is the corporate side of the same story.

The receipts. Bitcoin difficulty sits at 125.81 trillion, barely 0.7% above the 2026 low set June 13. Ten difficulty drops against seven increases this year. Roughly 150 EH/s of hashpower has disappeared from the network. Public miners shed 21% of their Bitcoin hashrate as AI revenue climbed. Keel shut all its Bitcoin mining on August 11 with $819 million ready for an AI pivot. Riot Platforms sold 9,665 BTC in the first half of 2026 to fund the same pivot. Hashprice is up 20% recently on a shrinking base. The network keeps ticking. The corporate operators are voting with their feet.