Bitcoin Miners Become Unexpected Winners in the AI Infrastructure Boom

Bitcoin miners are emerging as unlikely beneficiaries of the artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure boom, according to a new report from research and brokerage firm Bernstein. Analysts led by Gautam Chhugani said miners’ access to large, pre-secured power capacity puts them in a strong position to partner with AI cloud providers struggling with interconnection delays and power grid congestion.

Bernstein identified IREN — the leading publicly listed bitcoin miner by market capitalization — as its top pick, maintaining an “outperform” rating and reiterating its recently raised price target of $75.

14 Gigawatts of Power and a Strategic Advantage

The report highlighted that bitcoin miners collectively control over 14 gigawatts of grid-connected power, much of it located in areas with abundant renewable energy. This advantage, the analysts noted, could reduce AI data center buildout timelines by up to 75% compared to traditional developers waiting years for grid connections. “Access to the grid has become a very scarce resource in the U.S.,” the report stated, emphasizing that miners’ early infrastructure investments now make them valuable strategic partners for hyperscalers and AI service providers.

IREN’s Rapid Expansion and AI Ambitions

Among miners, IREN stands out with around 3 gigawatts of operational and under-development power capacity across North America. The company has also purchased over 23,000 GPUs — including NVIDIA’s latest Blackwell models — and expects its AI cloud division to reach a $500 million annualized revenue run rate by the first quarter of 2026. Key to this growth are IREN’s upcoming 50-megawatt liquid-cooled data center and a 2-gigawatt hub in Sweetwater, Texas.

Market Performance and Investor Sentiment

IREN’s stock has surged 123% in the past month and over 500% year-to-date, reflecting growing investor confidence in its AI-driven transformation. Following Bernstein’s September price target increase to $75, the stock has gained more than 50%, closing at $63.85 on Thursday and rising another 5.2% in pre-market trading Friday.

Balancing Bitcoin Mining and AI Hosting

Despite its aggressive pivot into AI, IREN remains one of the largest self-mining bitcoin operators in the U.S., with roughly 50 exahashes of hashpower generating an estimated $1.1 billion in annualized revenue and around $650 million in EBITDA at current bitcoin prices. According to Bernstein, this steady mining income is helping fund the company’s AI expansion, with total revenue projected to grow from $286 million in 2024 to $2.1 billion by 2027. By then, IREN’s AI operations are expected to contribute more than half of total revenue with roughly 83% EBITDA margins.

Bridging Two Compute Economies

Bernstein described bitcoin miners as uniquely positioned between two computational worlds — the volatile economics of bitcoin mining and the stable, long-term growth of AI infrastructure. The analysts estimate that by 2027, around 87% of IREN’s enterprise value could stem from its AI and power assets, compared to just 13% from bitcoin mining.

“Bitcoin miners began securing power infrastructure early, between 2019 and 2021,” Bernstein wrote, noting that this early move now gives them a decisive advantage in offering scalable, compute-ready power for AI workloads.