Bitcoin miners’ power edge makes them key AI infrastructure players, Bernstein says

Analysts at research and brokerage firm Bernstein said bitcoin miners are emerging as unexpected winners in the artificial intelligence infrastructure boom, thanks to their access to pre-secured, high-density power capacity.

In a new report on Friday, the analysts led by Gautam Chhugani argued that this power advantage positions miners as critical partners for AI cloud providers who are facing long interconnection delays and rising grid congestion. Among the group, Bernstein named the leading public bitcoin miner by market cap, IREN, as its top pick, rating the stock as “outperform” and reiterating their recently raised $75 price target.

The report notes that bitcoin miners have collectively secured access to more than 14 gigawatts of grid-connected power — much of it in regions with surplus renewable energy. This ready infrastructure could cut AI data center deployment timelines by as much as 75%, the analysts said, giving miners a head start over greenfield developers who face multi-year interconnection queues. “Access to the grid has become a very scarce resource in the U.S.,” the analysts wrote, highlighting how miners’ early build-outs now make them attractive strategic partners for hyperscalers and AI infrastructure providers.

Power and transmission access are the key factors for data center site selection. Image: Bernstein.

IREN, which controls around 3 gigawatts of operational and under-development power capacity across North America alone, has been one of the fastest players to capitalize on the opportunity on multiple fronts, according to the analysts. The company has also acquired more than 23,300 GPUs — including NVIDIA’s latest Blackwell models — and expects its AI cloud operations to surpass a $500 million annualized revenue run-rate by the first quarter of 2026, they noted. IREN’s upcoming 50-megawatt liquid-cooled data center and a 2-gigawatt Sweetwater hub in Texas are central to this expansion.

Pivoting to AI data centers is easier for BTC miners as they have secured access to over 14 GW of power. Image: Bernstein.

IREN’s recent stock performance may reflect an increasing recognition of its potential in the burgeoning AI infrastructure industry, up 123% over the past month and 519% year-to-date, according to The Block’s IREN price page.

In fact, the stock is already up more than 50% since Bernstein raised its IREN price target to $75 in September to come within 15% of that figure as of Thursday’s $63.85 closing price. IREN is up 5.2% in pre-market trading on Friday.

IREN/USD price chart. Image: The Block/TradingView.

Still a bitcoin miner

Despite its aggressive pivot into AI cloud hosting, IREN remains one of the largest self-operated bitcoin miners in the U.S., with around 50 EH/s of hashpower generating roughly $1.1 billion in annualized revenue and about $650 million in EBITDA at current bitcoin prices, according to the report.

The analysts said this cash-generative mining business is helping to fund the company’s rapid AI expansion, projecting its total revenue to rise from $286 million in 2024 to $2.1 billion by 2027, with IREN’s AI cloud segment contributing more than half of that total, achieving around 83% EBITDA margins.

Bernstein framed bitcoin miners as bridging two compute economies — volatile bitcoin mining and stable AI infrastructure hosting. Bernstein expects IREN’s AI and power assets to represent about 87% of its enterprise value by 2027, compared to just 13% from its bitcoin mining business amid a potential re-rating as miners reposition from bitcoin production toward high-margin data center operations.

“Bitcoin miners began securing power infrastructure early (2019–21),” the analysts said, providing them an edge to now offer scalable power capacity and infrastructure already designed for compute-intensive operations.

Chhugani maintains long positions in various cryptocurrencies.

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