Vitalik: Nearly half of Bitcoin mining costs are electricity, but AI inference electricity costs are less than 5% Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin shared a 'fun fact of the day' today: About half of Bitcoin mining costs go to buying equipment, and the other half to electricity. In contrast, AI inference costs are almost entirely equipment-related. He attached a detailed chart. Mining one BTC costs about $94,000, with mining rigs, cooling systems, and other equipment making up roughly 40%, and electricity accounting for about 46%. Meanwhile, running a GPU for AI inference for a year costs about $26,000, with equipment making up around 76% and electricity only about 4.8%. In other words, mining is all about who has cheaper electricity, while AI inference is about who can afford and effectively use better chips.