The biggest economic opportunity Pakistan has seen in decades may be slipping away—not because we lack talent, not because we lack electricity, and certainly not because artificial intelligence is beyond our reach. It may be lost because we are looking in the wrong direction.
The recent enthusiasm surrounding cryptocurrency mining has created the impression that Pakistan has finally discovered a productive use for its idle electricity. Yet if policymakers truly believe that allocating several gigawatts of electricity is the right strategic move, then they are asking the wrong question.
The question should never have been whether Pakistan should power Bitcoin miners.
The real question is why Pakistan is not trying to become South Asia’s next AI infrastructure hub.
The Debate Is Bigger Than Crypto
Recent discussions around Pakistan’s digital future have highlighted an important divide.
One side argues that unused electricity should be directed toward cryptocurrency mining because Pakistan already pays billions of rupees annually in capacity payments for generation that often goes unused.
Another side argues that if Pakistan is prepared to dedicate 5–10 GW of electricity, that energy should instead build sovereign AI infrastructure, hyperscale data centres and GPU clusters.
This second argument deserves far more attention.
Even globally, companies that originally built businesses around cryptocurrency mining are beginning to pivot.
For example, IREN (formerly Iris Energy) has increasingly shifted investment toward AI cloud infrastructure and GPU hosting as demand from artificial intelligence companies has exploded. The economics are changing because AI compute commands significantly higher and more stable revenue than traditional Bitcoin mining.
Pakistan should be studying that transition very carefully.
