Bernstein says Bitcoin mining deals key for AI power crunch
Bernstein says Bitcoin mining partnerships with AI firms will stay essential as power access, not chips, becomes the industry bottleneck. The firm remains overweight on miners after tracking more than 7.5 gigawatts of AI-related deals—about $150 billion in multi-year contracts—amid rising political pushback on new US data centers.
Key Takeaways
- Bernstein remains overweight on the Bitcoin mining sector as AI power limits tighten.
- Its July deal tracker logged a new AI-related miner partnership every week.
- Combined AI-miner deals exceed 7.5 gigawatts, or roughly $150 billion in multi-year contracts.
- Hut 8, IREN, TeraWulf and MARA have announced major AI infrastructure moves.
- Third-party miner capacity stays valuable as new US data centers face political resistance.
Why does Bernstein say Bitcoin mining deals matter now?
According to a Thursday research note shared with Cointelegraph, Bernstein remains overweight on Bitcoin miners because partnerships with third-party providers are needed to ease AI data-center power constraints.
The firm’s Bitcoin mining industry deal tracker registered a new AI-related deal every week in July. Combined deals stand at more than 7.5 gigawatts—the contracted equivalent of about $150 billion in multi-year contracts.
Analysts argue access to power, not just computing hardware, is the AI industry’s real bottleneck. That view is driving fresh interest across Fintech & Crypto Alerts coverage of miner-to-AI pivots.
Which Bitcoin miners are striking AI infrastructure deals?
Bitcoin mining stocks logged double-digit gains after Hut 8 and IREN announced major AI infrastructure deals. Hut 8 disclosed a 15-year, $9.8 billion lease for its AI data center campus. IREN reported $2.8 billion in cloud services contracts with AI developers.
Earlier in July, MARA Holdings said it plans to acquire a Texas site with up to 2 gigawatts of capacity to expand its AI and digital infrastructure business. Days earlier, TeraWulf signed a 20-year data center lease with AI startup Anthropic that the company said could generate roughly $19 billion in contract revenue.
Bitdeer has also expanded into AI cloud services and high-performance computing. In Thursday premarket activity, Hut 8 shares were up 5.23%, IREN 1.89% and TeraWulf 1.49%, while the CoinShares Bitcoin Mining ETF (WGMI) rose 1.47% ahead of the Nasdaq open.
Bernstein has an outperform rating on the stocks it named, except MARA, which it rates market perform.
How is politics tightening the AI power crunch?
Bernstein said Bitcoin miners and other third-party computing providers will remain important because construction of new data centers faces growing bipartisan political pushback in the United States.
On Wednesday, Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico reportedly shared a proposal for stronger local approval processes and to repeal tax breaks for AI data centers. In April, US Senator Ron Wyden raised concerns that AI data centers in Oregon could worsen water scarcity, noting large facilities can use up to 5 million gallons of water per day.
In March, the Trump administration published a Ratepayer Protection Pledge aimed at expanding AI infrastructure without raising electricity bills for households and small businesses. Several state governors have also argued new data centers should bear the grid costs they create rather than shifting them onto residential customers.
That political pressure helps explain why Bernstein sees miner power and sites as strategic for AI—even as global mining rules evolve, including Kazakhstan’s new strategic crypto mining framework tying electricity access to state-backed reserve contributions.