Legacy bitcoin miners that have pivoted to artificial intelligence, hyperscale computing and data center infrastructure continue to be rewarded on Tuesday. A slew of related equities rallied by double-digit percentages, with some even carving out new all-time highs. According to reports from The Block, this represents a continuation of a months-long rally that has seen former pure-play bitcoin miners switch off their rigs and divert their resources and capital to AI power and compute infrastructure — businesses many investors now see as more attractive than traditional mining operations. The broader market momentum was further supported by AI chip demand driving tech stocks higher, with the Nasdaq rising 1.19% and S&P 500 up 0.61% to new record highs, as reported by Investing.com.
IREN (NASDAQ: IREN) led the sector higher on Tuesday, climbing more than 13% and getting closer to a fresh all-time high as investors keep piling into the company's expanding AI infrastructure business. As reported by The Block, the rally follows a string of major announcements over the past month, including a $3 billion convertible notes raise, a partnership with Nvidia tied to an in-the-works 5-gigawatt AI data center and a $625 million acquisition of software services provider Mirantis. On Tuesday, IREN said it struck a $1.6 billion deal with Dell to supply Blackwell AI systems for its previously announced $3.4 billion cloud contract. Bernstein research highlighted IREN as one of the clearest examples of this transition, estimating the company's cloud AI business could eventually generate approximately $3.7 billion in annual revenue.
Cipher Digital (NASDAQ: CIFR) and Hut 8 (NASDAQ: HUT) also continued their runs, with CIFR jumping roughly 9.5% to around $25 and HUT climbing nearly 5% to about $118 — both fresh all-time highs. According to The Block, Cipher is repositioning itself as an AI and high-performance computing infrastructure developer, having signed multiple hyperscaler leases over the past year, including a 15-year deal tied to Amazon Web Services. Hut 8 is climbing higher on the heels of a $9.8 billion AI data center lease deal tied to Nvidia, with the potential value rising above $25 billion if contracts are renewed. HUT shares are now up nearly 600% year-over-year.
TeraWulf (NASDAQ: WULF) also continued higher on Tuesday, with the stock reaching a new 52-week high of $25.93 before settling at $25.18 with significant volume of 460,719,47 shares. According to MarketBeat, the rally was fueled by TeraWulf's announcement of acquiring the 1+ GW Muskie Data Campus in Eastern Kentucky, a hyperscale HPC site that could significantly expand its infrastructure platform and support future AI computing demand. The company has been pumping after acquiring a Kentucky site expected to support more than 1 gigawatt of power for AI and high-performance computing workloads, with the company's HPC segment now surpassing its bitcoin mining business in quarterly revenue for the first time. TeraWulf has been up roughly 17% over the past year, with the stock gaining momentum from its strategic pivot to AI infrastructure development.
The rally comes as investors increasingly focus on bitcoin miners' strategic advantage in AI infrastructure development. According to Bernstein research, 11 publicly traded Bitcoin miners collectively control around 27 gigawatts of existing and planned power capacity, positioning them advantageously as AI companies race to build computing power. Unlike many AI startups and cloud providers, Bitcoin miners already operate large-scale facilities with substantial energy access and industrial cooling systems. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index climbed 5.6% on Tuesday and is now up nearly 77% year-to-date, fueling the momentum across technology and semiconductor stocks. However, major technical challenges remain in converting existing mining facilities for AI workloads, with industry estimates suggesting the process can take 6-12 months and require substantial capital investment. Bernstein analysts described reliable electricity access, rather than semiconductors alone, as the emerging bottleneck for scaling AI data center capacity, positioning miners as potential strategic partners for hyperscalers and AI companies that need ready-built power infrastructure.
