Bitcoin miners saved Texas power grid from collapse, but their lucrative pivot to AI is stripping away the emergency brake

Texas broke its all-time electricity demand record twice in two days last week. ERCOT served a preliminary 91,308 megawatts around 5 p.m. on July 22, one day after demand hit 87,403 megawatts and erased the 85,508-megawatt mark that had stood since Aug. 10, 2023. Neither afternoon saw an appeal for energy conservation, and the system [ ]