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⛏️ The real AI gold rush

⛏️ The real AI gold rush

PLUS: Data centers outperform LLMs, crypto banks prepare to plug in, Bitcoin resets, and content coins emerge.

Cryptopolitan News
December 31, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 8 minutes

Everyone tried to chase Nvidia down the AI rabbit hole.

But GPUs, storage drives, fiber cables and HVAC units clearly stole the show.

Introducing the true winners of 2025’s great AI jackpot:

SanDisk → up 580% this year
Western Digital → up 215%
Seagate, Amphenol and Vertiv Holdings → all blew way past expectations

Why? Because suddenly the world needed to construct, cool and operate a LOT of AI data centers.

❝

Forget AI apps or chatbots. The real goldmine? Tools to run those apps.

Quick explainers

🧠 What’s AI infrastructure?

It’s the boilerplate: power lines, cooling systems, racks and drives, fibers optic cables and airflow systems needed to keep AI servers running.

📦 Why did SanDisk surge?

AI training = large data = large storage requirements. SSDs were already being made by SanDisk and others. They didn’t pivot. The market came to them.

🌬️ Who is Vertiv?

A maker of cooling systems for data centers. It’s not sexy stuff, but when the server farms reach infernal temperatures, Vertiv is all that stands between them and too much hotness ;)

What about miners?

Bitcoin mining companies such as Riot and Bitdeer are finding new life for their energy-guzzling warehouses by retrofitting them with AI compute power. They already have cheap electricity. Now they’re chasing AI contracts.

The AI gold rush has shifted from chips to shovels.

In 2023-2024, the AI rush was all about the flashiest and fastest generative engine. But 2025 showed us that wealth is made by selling the shovels in a gold rush.

POLL: Where do you think the next big AI money goes?

📊 Market Watch

💰 Crypto banks are coming.

2026 could at last bring crypto into the fold of traditional finance. BitGo, Circle, Ripple and Paxos are among the big names that are on course for national bank licenses. Provisional approval has already been given to Erebor.

If it’s approved, these companies can avoid legacy banks and plug directly into the US payment system. Fed by the momentum of stablecoins and demand from fintech companies, crypto isn’t merely disrupting finance; it’s becoming the system.

📊 Bitcoin finishes 2025 down.

If you exclude a parabolic spike to $126,000 in October, BTC ended the year down 6%. The year-end selling and unwind of leverage couldn’t be overcome by ETFs and Trump’s win.

A rebound is anticipated, however: Citi predicts a $143K base target for 2026. With $113B+ in ETFs and a $1.4B arsenal at the ready, both MicroStrategy and this could stage a comeback, if momentum returns.

⚖️ Grayscale says rules, not robots, will determine crypto’s future.

Grayscale treated quantum fears less alarmingly in its 2026 outlook, zeroing in on regulation as the next major unlock.

A bipartisan crypto framework is likely to be enacted this year, and it will level the playing field between crypto and traditional finance. That clarity could at last persuade the institutions off the sidelines and speed up ETF growth. No longer is regulation the threat: it has become the on-ramp.

👀 Are you watching this?

From memes to headlines, content coins are here.

A new type of tokens is transforming snippets of viral news into tradeable assets. These tokens, known as content coins, live fast and pump hard then die faster than you can refresh your feed.

It’s sort of like meme coins meets the real-time news. One example? A token called “This daycare in Minnesota”, inspired by a real fraud headline.

Primarily launched on Base, content coins are now a traders’ playground for those seeking 10x gains off trending moments.

But with $50K liquidity caps and shorter lifespans than most tweets, they’re high-risk, low-reward plays. And yet, they’re catching on, particularly as prediction markets and meme hype start to blend together.

It’s a trend that we will keep our eye on.

Read here