Since the beginning of 2024, publicly traded Bitcoin mining companies have collectively spent more than $3.6 billion on property, plant, and equipment (PPE).

This includes money spent on mining hardware, data center upgrades, and other infrastructure needed to maintain and expand their operations.

Record Spending Incoming

A November 28 newsletter from TheMinerMag revealed that mining companies investments in PPE between July and September 2024 were the highest since Q1 2022 when they forked out a record $1.246 billion.

In Q3 2024, the firms paid out $1.226 billion, only $20 million less than the Q1 2022 numbers. CleanSpark has yet to release its financial report for that period, and analysts feel that adding the Nevada-based miner’s outlay could allow the industry to set a new record for net PPE expenditure in a single quarter.

The BTC miners have invested about $3.49 billion in equipment and upgrades this year, including $1.18 billion between January and March and $1.07 billion between April and June, in addition to the Q3 figure. This is already nearly $900 million more than the sectors outlay in the entirety of 2022.

Hardware Purchases Dominate Spending

The uptick in investment following a subdued 2023, when the companies put about $1.3 billion into PPE, coincides with the Bitcoin network’s hashrate going up to nearly 790 exahashes per second (EH/s).

Furthermore, the cryptocurrency’s mining difficulty also hit a new all-time high of 101.6 T on November 5, with experts predicting it will probably go up by at least another 2% in the coming days.

It means that mining operations will have to focus on efficiency and scale to stay competitive and profitable. As such, most of the PPE money invested in the last year went towards upgrading and expanding mining hardware.

Preorder data tracked by TheMinerMag between July 2023 and March 2024 shows the firms committed more than $2 billion to buying the latest BTC mining machines.

Deliveries were expected to start streaming in by September 2024, with China-based Bitmain securing most of the deals. However, delays in shipping the company’s Antminer ASIC devices to U.S.-based BTC miners have sparked speculation about potential links to ongoing geopolitical issues. This includes a reported investigation into possible sanctions violations by Sophgo, a Chinese chip maker associated with Bitmain co-founder Micree Zhan.

If a connection were established, it could have serious consequences for the multi-billion dollar BTC mining sector, especially at a time when the cryptocurrency is threatening to breach the $100,000 milestone.