Energy, AI, and Cango: When Mining Farms Become the "Batteries" of the Computing Power Era

In Silicon Valley's investment circles, discussions about the "energy wall" have been rampant recently. A consensus is forming: in the second half of AI, the competition is not for chips, but for the power grid. When Nvidia's GPU production capacity is no longer a bottleneck, whoever can find the cheapest and most stable electricity for these money-guzzling machines will control the "oil" of the AI era.

At this critical juncture, a highly dramatic example has emerged in the US stock market: a year ago it was a traditional auto finance company, but a year later it not only sold its original business, but also transformed into a new powerhouse holding more than 7,000 Bitcoins.

This company is called CANG. At this pivotal moment when encryption and AI collide, it is using real money to prove a logic: in the capital market, those who survive the longest are not the strongest, but those who can transform the fastest.

I. The Evolution of Mining Farms: From "Electricity Arbitrage" to "Infrastructure Outposts"

To understand the value of Cango, one must first understand the dramatic changes currently taking place in the crypto mining industry.

In the past, mining farms were seen as simple "electricity arbitrage machines"—consuming electricity to produce Bitcoin. But with the explosive growth of AI demand, the definition of mining farms has been rewritten. As is widely believed in the industry: mining farms are essentially "converter sockets" for energy and computing power. They occupy valuable power capacity and substation facilities, which are precisely the most scarce resources for AI data centers.

However, North American power grids are nearing their limits. According to BloombergNEF, by 2030, data center loads on the PJM grid alone could reach 31 GW. In Texas, power queues and high grid connection costs are making it extremely difficult to build new AI data centers.

This structural supply-demand imbalance has forced capital to seek out "energy havens." This is precisely the brilliance of Cango's strategy: instead of struggling within the congested US power grid, it used its mines as "Trojan horses" to preemptively secure a foothold in global energy havens.

II. Oman and Indonesia: "Energy Hunters" Fleeing the Red Sea

In its latest strategy, Cango has set its sights on two seemingly niche but actually highly promising locations: Oman and Indonesia. This is not blind expansion, but a precise "energy hunt".

First, Oman: a zero-cost myth in the desert.

Cango has already deployed 12% of its computing power here. Why Oman? Because the direct industrial electricity price here is generally between $0.05 and $0.07 per kWh, far lower than the commercial electricity price in most US states. Even more imaginative is Cango's ongoing off-grid closed-loop project integrating solar power, energy storage, and computing power. Once this system is operational under desert sunlight, it means that marginal energy costs will approach zero. This is not just about mining; it's paving the way for future high-energy-consuming AI.

Secondly, Indonesia: the best battleground for edge computing power.

If Oman is driven by cheap energy, Indonesia is driven by "scenario opportunities." Indonesia boasts the world's second-largest geothermal reserves and is backed by the booming Southeast Asian digital economy, including companies like Shopee and TikTok. Cango is not only securing long-term, low-cost clean energy here, but also laying the groundwork for the future of AI inference. As AI moves from training to inference, computing power demands will shift from centralized clusters to edge nodes closer to users. Cango's presence in Indonesia perfectly positions it at the cusp of Southeast Asia's AI inference growth.

III. Valuation Restructuring: An Unpriced "Call Option"

Cango's current balance sheet is extremely "sexy": it holds $44.9 million in cash and over 7,000 bitcoins. Q3 mining revenue reached $220 million, accounting for 98% of its total revenue. Even without considering AI, based solely on these liquid assets and mining cash flow, its current market capitalization is severely undervalued. Investors buying Cango are essentially buying a safety net of assets while simultaneously receiving a free call option on "AI computing power transformation."

Once the off-grid project in Oman proves successful, or the computing power leasing business in Indonesia begins to contribute substantial revenue, the market will have to shift its valuation focus from "mining stocks" to "AI infrastructure stocks." At that time, Cango will experience a "double whammy" of improved performance and valuation.

Conclusion

Mining farms are more than just mining farms; they are land reserves for the AI era. Computing power is more than just numbers; it is the industrial output of the future.

Cango's experiment is essentially a gamble on the future: the ultimate competition for computing power will no longer be about chips, but about the redistribution of global energy resources. It has transformed itself into a speedboat that can freely switch between "digital assets" and "AI computing power."

For investors, understanding the underlying logic of this "energy + computing power" shift may be the key to finding the most authentic "valuation switch" that has been obscured by market sentiment.