Kevin O'Leary: Bitcoin mining and AI infrastructure are the new real estate markets

Source: PortaldoBitcoin Original Title: Kevin O’Leary, from Shark Tank, sees Bitcoin mining and AI as the new real estate market Original Link: Investor and entrepreneur Kevin O’Leary is one of the investors on the well-known investment show Shark Tank. He is betting on the long-term true value of the cryptocurrency market and artificial intelligence, which lies not just in the tokens themselves but in the infrastructure supporting these technologies.

O’Leary revealed in an interview that he currently controls approximately 26,000 acres of land distributed across different regions, used to support projects related to Bitcoin mining, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and large-scale data centers.

According to the investor, half of these areas are located in Alberta, Canada, while the other 13,000 acres are in undisclosed locations and are currently in the permitting stage. O’Leary claims that about 19% of his portfolio is already exposed to the crypto sector, considering not only digital assets but also infrastructure, energy, and land.

The entrepreneur has invested in Norway-based Bitcoin miner BitZero and often compares cryptocurrency mining to real estate business. In his assessment, miners and AI companies first need to acquire large tracts of land and competitive energy contracts.

O’Leary states he is not interested in directly building data centers but is instead interested in land prepared with permits and complete infrastructure—energy, water, fiber optics, and usage rights—and then leasing it to companies for installation.

“My job isn’t necessarily to build data centers,” he said. “It’s to prepare everything for the project so it’s ready to start.” O’Leary further states that he believes about half of the data centers announced in the past three years will never be built, mainly due to a lack of proper planning regarding land, energy, and permits. In his view, there is a speculative rush around announcements, but a lack of real understanding of the costs and complexities involved.

O’Leary claims that some energy contracts—especially those costing less than 6 cents per kilowatt-hour—are more valuable than Bitcoin itself. According to him, this difference makes infrastructure more strategic in the long run than the tokens.

Skepticism about Cryptocurrency

Despite continued exposure to the sector, O’Leary says he is increasingly skeptical about most of the crypto market. In his view, institutional capital involved is only interested in two assets: Bitcoin and Ethereum.

He downplays the impact of recent crypto ETF launches on large investors and bluntly states that smaller coins are unlikely to recover from the significant declines of the past few years. Recent data from Charles Schwab reinforces this view: nearly 80% of the total value of the crypto market is concentrated in foundational blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum.

For O’Leary, the decisive factor for broader institutional adoption will not be technological innovation but regulation. He is closely watching the crypto market framework bill currently being discussed in the U.S. Senate and believes it will be a turning point for larger investors to enter more actively. Nonetheless, he criticizes current provisions in the bill, such as banning stablecoin yield payments, which he sees as creating an unfair advantage for traditional banks.

The investor mentions that such restrictions are one of the reasons some compliant platforms have withdrawn support for the project. “This is not a level playing field,” he said. For O’Leary, allowing stablecoins to generate yields is crucial to unlocking the economic potential of the sector. He still believes the bill will be amended, and when that happens, he expects the market to see significant institutional allocations to Bitcoin.