Bernstein says Bitcoin miners now control over 27GW of power capacity amid booming AI infrastructure demand.
Bitcoin News
Bitcoin (BTC) miners have reportedly accumulated more than 27 gigawatts of planned power capacity across the US. Investment bank Bernstein described that figure as a strategically valuable asset in a research note published May 19.
The note followed a Wall Street Journal report that Google and Blackstone are planning a joint AI cloud venture. Blackstone is committing $5 billion in equity and retaining a majority stake. Google would contribute its custom chip technology to the project.
The announcement shifted analyst attention toward a central constraint in AI infrastructure buildout. That constraint is not capital or computing hardware, but access to electricity. Securing a single gigawatt of grid-connected power can take more than four years in most US states. That timeline has forced large technology companies and cloud operators to look beyond conventional data center developers for capacity.
Miners Lock In $90B in AI Contracts
#Bitcoin miners have moved to fill that gap. The industry has signed more than $90 billion in AI-related contracts covering 3.7 gigawatts of capacity, per Bernstein's analysis. Roughly one-third of those contracts involve major hyperscalers directly. The rest are with independent AI computing providers, sometimes called neoclouds.
Individual miners have secured notable deals. IREN closed an agreement with Nvidia valued at $3.4 billion, including a $2.1 billion equity commitment tied to GPU deployment. Riot Platforms signed an AI colocation deal with AMD. Core Scientific and HUT 8 each have separate agreements with major cloud customers.
Bernstein said miners are in a structurally resilient position regardless of how the AI cloud market develops. Whether major technology firms build their own compute operations or continue contracting with independent providers, demand for grid-connected, ready-to-deploy power remains. Miners currently hold a large share of that supply.
The bank carries outperform ratings on four #mining companies. IREN has a $100 price target, Riot Platforms carries a $25 target, and CleanSpark and Core Scientific each carry a $24 target. MARA Holdings has a market-perform rating with a $23 price target.
Bernstein described the broader shift as a structural repositioning. Companies that were once focused on BTC production alone are now operating as dual-purpose infrastructure businesses. Their large power portfolios have made them central to the AI compute expansion.
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