Shares of Bitcoin miners IREN and Cipher Mining surged in the market this Monday. This came after the announcement of multi-billion-dollar agreements with tech giants like Microsoft and Amazon Web Services. These transactions mark the latest trend of “Magnificent Seven” companies signing contracts with Bitcoin mining and data center firms. The news underscores the growing convergence between crypto mining infrastructure and the demand for artificial intelligence (AI) computing, transforming the landscape of Bitcoin miners AI services.
IREN, a Sydney, Australia-based company that has pivoted to AI cloud computing, inked a $9.7 billion deal with Microsoft. This contract, with a 5-year average term, includes a 20% prepayment and the deployment of NVIDIA GB300 GPUs in 200MW data centers. The news caused IREN’s stock to rocket up nearly 21% early Monday, reaching almost $73 per share. IREN co-founder and CEO Daniel Roberts stated that this agreement validates IREN’s position as a trusted provider of AI Cloud services. It also opens access to a new customer segment among global hyperscalers. Microsoft stock also rose on the news.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin miner Cipher Mining on Monday announced an approximately $5.5 billion, 15-year lease agreement with Amazon Web Services. The goal is to provide turnkey space and power for AI workloads. Cipher will deliver 300 MW of capacity in 2026, including both air and liquid cooling to the racks. Nasdaq-listed Cipher’s stock also rose, up about 22%. These types of agreements demonstrate the high demand for infrastructure for AI.
Are Bitcoin miners redefining their business model towards high-performance computing for AI?
Top tech companies are actively seeking deals with data center firms. This is to snap up compute capacity as AI demand increases. Cipher, for example, in September signed a 10-year, roughly $3 billion high-performance computing colocation agreement with Fluidstack, backed by Google. In August, Google also upped its stake in Bitcoin miner Terawulf. It provided an incremental $1.4 billion backstop to support project-related debt financing. This brought its total stake to $3.2 billion.
In the Bitcoin mining world, companies use warehouses full of computers to process transactions on the crypto network. Because they’ve amassed so much computing power, some miners are pivoting their infrastructure to address growing AI demand. This diversification strategy is crucial. However, Bitcoin was recently trading at $106,700, down 3.1% over the past 24 hours and more than 7% during the past week. In a Myriad prediction market, nearly 60% of respondents believe BTC will sink to $100,000. Meanwhile, the remainder thinks the asset’s next move will be to $120,000. This outlook reflects market volatility.
This transformation of Bitcoin miners towards AI computing not only generates massive revenues but also sets a new precedent for the strategic use of crypto infrastructure. As AI continues to expand, these companies’ ability to adapt their operations could be key to their long-term success. The underlying blockchain for Bitcoin has provided them with the necessary hardware foundation for this transition.
