Vitalik: Bitcoin Mining Split Evenly Between Hardware and Power, AI Inference Mostly Hardware

Buterin's comparison is a cost-structure observation rather than a claim about networks' merits, and it lands on a live question for RWA and compute-linked markets: how much of a business's economics sit in sunk hardware versus ongoing energy spend. The framing matters for anyone tracking AI infrastructure financing and Bitcoin miners' capital cycles, since hardware-heavy cost bases are more sensitive to depreciation and supply chains, while power-heavy ones hinge on energy prices. Whether the distinction proves durable as AI hardware evolves is the open question.