Here's your Forbes Daily Briefing for Sunday, December 15th.

Today on Forbes, a Bitcoin miner promised to help a Texas town.

It went bankrupt instead.

Now it's pivoting to AI.

Three years ago, one of the world's largest Bitcoin miners offered a lifeline to the town of Denton, Texas, a community

burdened with tens of millions of dollars in debt.

The miner, Core Scientific, wanted to build a data center in the city.

In exchange for a massive power contract, they would double Denton's energy footprint,

the company would provide much-needed revenue in the form of taxes and

fees. Denton accepted. But within months of powering on, Core Scientific filed for bankruptcy

after being saddled with its own outstanding debt. Now, on the heels of the artificial

intelligence boom, Core Scientific has reinvented itself as a cloud

computing company for AI startups. Last month, the former Crypto Miner announced that its Denton facility

will transform into what it claims will be one of the largest AI supercomputers in North America.

It received a green light from Denton's local government

to increase its previously 297 megawatt power agreement

by another 100 megawatts,

enough to run nearly 400,000 homes,

a capacity larger than Elon Musk's so-called Colossus supercomputer

in Memphis, Tennessee.

Many industrial Bitcoin miners have pivoted their operations to AI in hopes of boosting revenue streams after a volatile 2022 market downturn,

known as the so-called Crypto Winter.

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