Bitcoin Miners Find a Second Life as AI Power Brokers

Wall Street’s semiconductor rally is giving Bitcoin miners a fresh narrative. On Tuesday, shares of companies like TeraWulf, Hut 8, IREN, and Riot Platforms surged as investors bet that the power-hungry infrastructure these firms built for crypto can fuel the next wave of AI computing.

TeraWulf jumped as much as 17% after announcing a Kentucky data center acquisition. The broader Philadelphia Semiconductor Index climbed 5.6% and is now up nearly 77% for the year. The S&P 500 hit new highs above 7,500, led by tech stocks.

The logic is straightforward: AI data centers need massive amounts of reliable electricity—something Bitcoin miners already have in spades. Many miners are repurposing their energy assets and operational expertise to host high-performance computing workloads, a business seen as more stable than crypto mining alone.

Bernstein analysts recently noted that 11 public Bitcoin miners control roughly 27 gigawatts of current and planned power capacity. They argue that access to electricity, not just chips, is becoming the primary bottleneck for scaling AI infrastructure. That positions miners as potential partners for hyperscalers and AI companies looking for ready-made power and data center capacity.

IREN is a case in point. The company is pivoting from Bitcoin mining toward AI infrastructure and recently signed an agreement with Microsoft. Bernstein estimates that deal could generate an annualized revenue run rate of about $3.7 billion for IREN’s AI cloud business.

For business leaders watching the AI infrastructure buildout, the takeaway is clear: the next battleground isn’t just about better GPUs—it’s about who controls the power to run them.