Bitcoin miners pivot to AI: Why TeraWulf, IREN, and Hut 8 are becoming new players in AI infrastructure?

On July 9, 2026, Beijing time, a noteworthy signal appeared in the U.S. stock market. Three Bitcoin mining stock names—TeraWulf (WULF), IREN (IREN), and Hut 8 (HUT)—all collectively ranked among the best-performing stocks on that day. On July 9, TeraWulf rose 12.80% to $22.83; IREN rose 8.01% to $43.01; and Hut 8 rose 9.69% to $106.17.

The backdrop to this rally is that, over the same period, the price of Bitcoin (BTC) was $62,721.7, down 7.63% over the past 7 days and down 10.73% over the past 30 days—overall performance is not particularly strong. The traditional positive correlation between mining-stock performance and Bitcoin prices is being broken by a new narrative: AI infrastructure.

Mining Companies’ Transformation to AI: From Survival Pressure to Strategic Choice

Bitcoin mining companies turning to AI infrastructure is not a whim, but a rational choice driven by multiple layers of pressure.

The inherent pressures of the mining business model are the first driver of the transition. Bitcoin miners have long faced several structural problems: the high volatility of the BTC price directly determines revenue uncertainty; the continuous rise in the network’s mining difficulty means that the same amount of hash power yields fewer and fewer Bitcoins; the block reward is halved every four years, directly cutting block output in half; and on top of that, electricity costs’ share in operating expenses continues to climb, so a business model relying solely on mining income naturally tends to have low profit stability. Hash price—an indicator of the revenue miners receive per unit of computing power—is currently at a cyclical low.

The explosive growth in AI computing demand provides miners with a new outlet for revenue. AI data centers require large-scale power supply, high-performance computing facilities, advanced cooling systems, and reliable network infrastructure—precisely the core assets that miners already have. Miners have long held low-cost energy resources, large data center sites, and power procurement capabilities, and these assets are being repriced in the AI era. According to industry data, the speed at which miners can deploy AI-ready facilities may be up to 75% faster than building new data centers.

As of March 2026, publicly listed Bitcoin mining companies had signed, in total, AI and high-performance computing hosting contracts worth more than $70 billion. Analysts predict that by the end of 2026, about 70% of the industry’s revenue will come from AI-related business, whereas this proportion was only around 30% earlier this year.

TeraWulf: A Benchmark Case of Turning From Miner Into an AI “Landlord”

TeraWulf (NASDAQ: WULF) is the most representative example in this wave of transformation. On July 6, TeraWulf announced that it had signed a 20-year data center leasing agreement with AI company Anthropic. Anthropic will move into TeraWulf’s Justified Data campus in Horseville, Kentucky. The campus will be built in phases to develop approximately 401 megawatts of critical IT load capacity, with power delivery expected to begin in the second half of 2027 and full operations expected in early 2028.

This lease is expected to generate approximately $19 billion in contract revenue during the initial term. This figure exceeds TeraWulf’s total market capitalization of about $12 billion. Paul Prager, Chairman and CEO of TeraWulf, said the lease validates the company’s strategic direction and establishes a long-term revenue stream with a leading global AI company.

At the same time, TeraWulf sold 50.1% of its equity interest in a data center joint venture in Abernathy, Texas for about $530 million. The transaction realized its investment capital of about $450 million at a premium, freeing up cash flow to expand fully owned AI infrastructure projects.

From the perspective of financial structure, the effects of the transformation are already visible. In the first quarter of fiscal 2026, TeraWulf’s HPC lease revenue reached $21.02 million, accounting for more than 60% of total revenue. The company recently completed a $1 billion equity financing to fund construction of the Kentucky campus. Wall Street investment banks have given TeraWulf positive evaluations: KBW maintained an “Outperform” rating with a $33 price target; B. Riley maintained a “Buy” rating with a $32 price target; Needham raised its price target from $28 to $33; and Compass Point raised its price target from $28 to $40.

IREN: A Vertically Integrated AI Cloud Services Provider

IREN (NASDAQ: IREN) chose a path different from TeraWulf—transforming from a Bitcoin mining company into a vertically integrated AI cloud services provider.

IREN’s core asset is a series of large contracts. By the end of 2025, IREN signed a five-year, $9.7 billion AI cloud contract with Microsoft, covering 200 megawatts of IT load at the Childress campus in Texas. The contract includes a 20% Microsoft prepayment and about $5.8 billion of Dell GPU joint procurement. This contract corresponds to approximately $1.94 billion in annualized recurring revenue (ARR), with an estimated EBITDA profit margin of about 85%.

In addition, IREN signed a $3.4 billion AI cloud services contract with Nvidia to deploy Blackwell GPUs. The company plans to expand its GPU scale from about 23,000 units (end of 2025) to 150,000 units (end of 2026). Its target is to raise ARR from $1.94 billion to $4.4 billion.

Operational data also confirms progress in the transition. In the third quarter of fiscal 2026, IREN’s AI cloud services revenue increased 94.2% quarter-over-quarter, offsetting the planned reduction in Bitcoin mining activity. By the end of the third quarter of 2026, IREN’s contracted ARR had reached $3.1 billion. The company targets 480 megawatts of AI cloud capacity by the end of 2026.

Wall Street’s valuation re-rating of IREN is also positive. Cantor Fitzgerald raised its price target to $99; Jefferies gave a “Buy” rating with a $79 target; the 12-month average analyst price target is approximately $81. On July 8, Freedom Capital Markets upgraded IREN’s rating to “Buy.”

Hut 8: An Energy-Priority Large-Scale AI Data Center Developer

Hut 8 (NASDAQ: HUT)’s transformation strategy focuses on developing large-scale AI data centers with an “energy-first” approach.

Hut 8 commercialized its River Bend campus AI data center under a 15-year lease with a contract value of about $7 billion. Subsequently, the company also commercialized Phase 1’s 352 megawatts of IT capacity at the Beacon Point campus under a 15-year lease, with a base lease contract value of $9.8 billion. If all three five-year renewal options are exercised, the total contract value could reach $25.1 billion.

As of May 2026, the total contracted capacity of AI data centers signed by Hut 8 had reached 597 megawatts, with a total base lease contract value of about $16.8 billion and average annual net operating income of about $1.1 billion. The Beacon Point campus under construction is designed with total capacity of 1 gigawatt. To support expansion, Hut 8 completed a $4.25 billion issuance of senior secured notes.

Hut 8 was also added in July 2026 to multiple Russell growth and small-cap stock indices. Index inclusion indicates that institutional investors are paying attention to miners’ strategic transformation toward AI. Over the past year, Hut 8’s share price has gained a cumulative 383%.

Mining Companies’ Transformation to AI Is Not the End of Bitcoin Mining

The market needs to be clear on one point: mining companies’ transformation to AI does not mean the end of the Bitcoin mining era.

More precisely, mining companies are looking for a second growth curve. In the future, mining companies’ business models are likely to take a diversified structure: the Bitcoin mining business provides direct exposure to digital assets; the AI/HPC computing business provides stable, predictable long-term cash flows; and the energy infrastructure business supports the operations of the first two as underlying assets. TeraWulf’s case has already proved this—while the company is still operating its Bitcoin business, the Anthropic lease and its broader project pipeline have become key markers of its value.

How AI Computing Demand Is Reshaping the Crypto Industry’s Infrastructure

Mining companies’ shift toward AI infrastructure is driving a substantive integration between the crypto industry and the AI industry at the infrastructure level.

From an industry logic standpoint, growth in AI computing demand drives the expansion of centralized data centers, and this expansion in turn spurs innovation in several directions: decentralized computing networks (DePIN) gain more attention, and AI Agent infrastructure begins to intersect with crypto networks. The relationship between AI and the crypto industry is moving from narrative-level linkage to deep integration at the infrastructure level.

Why Is the Market Repricing Mining Companies?

Changes in the valuation logic for mining companies are the core to understanding this round of market activity.

In the past, the valuation of mining companies could basically be simplified to the formula “Bitcoin price × mining capacity.” Mining stocks were often viewed as “leveraged bets” on Bitcoin—when Bitcoin rose, mining stocks rose more; when Bitcoin fell, mining stocks fell deeper.

But this correlation is being broken. In July 2026, Bitcoin was down about 29% year-to-date, while Riot Platforms was still up about 80% year-to-date, and MARA Holdings was up about 44%. The long-standing positive correlation between mining stocks and Bitcoin has been weakened; in its place is an increasingly strong linkage between mining stocks and the semiconductor sector.

The market is now assessing mining companies under a new framework: AI computing revenue, data center assets, long-term computing contracts, and the value of energy resources—these dimensions are being incorporated into valuation models. Investors can no longer simply treat mining stocks as alternative investment tools for Bitcoin.

Conclusion

The cases of TeraWulf, IREN, and Hut 8 show that Bitcoin mining companies are undergoing a profound reinvention of their identity—from “digital gold producers” to “digital infrastructure providers.” This transformation is driven by both external pressures (declining mining economics) and internal momentum (explosive AI computing demand). Mining companies with power resources, data center facilities, and energy infrastructure have found new value anchors in the AI era.

However, the transformation is not without risks. Converting mining sites into AI data centers means signing long-term leases with a single hyperscale customer. If the customer builds its own infrastructure, renegotiates terms, or encounters operational problems, mining companies may face a situation where specialized facilities have no tenants. AI workloads and Bitcoin mining have fundamental differences in infrastructure requirements: mining equipment can operate intermittently on power in remote areas, while AI training and inference clusters require stable, high-density power supply and complex cooling systems. TeraWulf’s Anthropic facility is not expected to begin operations until 2027, when actual initial data will be available to validate the feasibility of “converting mining sites to AI.” Cipher Mining’s $5.5 billion AWS contract is also an important bellwether.

In any case, the valuation logic for mining companies has changed irreversibly. The market is re-measuring these companies—once belonging only to the crypto world—using the standards of AI infrastructure providers.

FAQ

Q: Why do Bitcoin mining companies want to transition to AI infrastructure?

A: Mining companies have long faced pressure from BTC price volatility, rising mining difficulty, and block reward halvings, resulting in insufficient profitability stability. With the explosion in AI computing demand, mining companies happen to possess the power resources and site facilities that AI data centers need most. The transition is a rational choice to leverage existing asset value and seek stable revenue sources.

Q: How big is TeraWulf’s lease with Anthropic?

A: TeraWulf signed a 20-year lease with Anthropic to provide 401 megawatts of AI data center capacity at the Justified Data campus in Kentucky, expected to generate approximately $19 billion in contract revenue during the initial lease term.

Q: How is IREN’s AI business progressing?

A: IREN has signed a $9.7 billion, five-year AI cloud contract with Microsoft and a $3.4 billion cloud services contract with Nvidia. In the third quarter of fiscal 2026, AI cloud services revenue grew 94% quarter-over-quarter, targeting $4.4 billion in ARR by the end of 2026.

Q: After mining companies transition to AI, will they keep mining Bitcoin?

A: Yes. The transition does not mean abandoning Bitcoin mining; it means seeking a second growth curve. In the future, mining companies may operate three major business segments simultaneously: BTC mining, AI computing services, and energy infrastructure.

Q: What changed in the valuation logic for mining companies?

A: In the past, mining company valuations mainly depended on BTC price and mining capacity. Now the market is repricing them under the framework of AI infrastructure providers, incorporating dimensions such as AI computing revenue, data center assets, long-term contracts, and energy resource value.