From Bitcoin To AI: How IREN And Cipher Are Hosting Nvidia-Powered AI Workloads
The decline in Bitcoin mining has led to a resurgence in AI infrastructure, with companies like Cipher Mining and Iren Ltd repurposing their facilities for Nvidia-powered AI workloads. Cipher has secured a 10-year hosting deal with Fluidstack, while Iren is expanding its capacity significantly. Both companies are capitalizing on the demand for AI compute power, with Iren projected to achieve over $500 million in annual revenue by 2026. This shift highlights the evolving role of crypto miners as key players in the AI cloud market, attracting interest from major tech firms.
The Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) mining bust just found its silver lining — and it's glowing green with Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA)-powered AI. As Alphabet Inc‘s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG) Google and Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) scramble to secure low-cost, high-density data centers for their next wave of AI expansion, they've stumbled upon an unlikely landlord – the crypto miners they once helped render obsolete – now retrofitted with Nvidia GPUs to handle the compute-heavy demands of modern AI.
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From Crypto Crash To Cloud Gold Rush
After Bitcoin's profitability plunged, miners sitting on cheap power and stranded infrastructure were forced to pivot — fast. Now those same megawatt farms are being reborn as GPU fortresses for artificial intelligence workloads.
Cipher Mining Inc (NASDAQ:CIFR) struck a 10-year, 170 MW hosting deal with Fluidstack, backed by none other than Google, which also grabbed a 5% equity stake. Cipher's facilities are being fitted for high-density AI workloads using Nvidia H100 and Blackwell GPUs— a sign of how quickly miners are evolving into GPU landlords.
TeraWulf Inc (NASDAQ:WULF) signed similar long-term contracts to host 360 MW of AI compute, while Iren Ltd (NASDAQ:IREN) (formerly known as Iris Energy) is expanding capacity to nearly 3 GW by 2026 — enough to triple its footprint and become an AI hosting heavyweight.
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IREN has also announced additional multi-year AI cloud contracts with leading AI companies for Nvidia Blackwell GPU deployments. With 23,000 GPUs currently operating or on order, IREN remains on track to achieve more than $500 million in annualized run-rate revenue (ARR) by the end of the first quarter of 2026.
To date, contracts covering 11,000 of these GPUs — roughly $225 million in ARR — are expected to be operational by the end of 2025. New GPU contracts continue to be secured ahead of delivery, with terms supporting a roughly two-year revenue payback, highlighting IREN's rapid execution and customer demand.
The New AI Cloud Arms Race
Behind these deals is a quieter but fiercer battle for compute real estate. CoreWeave Inc (NASDAQ:CRWV), once a small GPU cloud startup, snapped up bankrupt miner Core Scientific Inc (NASDAQ:CORZ) and has been leasing hundreds of megawatts from miners like Cipher, TeraWulf, and Applied Digital Corp (NASDAQ:APLD) to cement its position as an AI cloud powerhouse.
Not to be outdone, Nebius Group NV (NASDAQ:NBIS) inked a $17 billion-plus deal with Microsoft Azure to supply GPU-dense racks from its U.S. campuses — a direct challenge to CoreWeave in the race to dominate AI infrastructure.
Investor Takeaway
The AI utility trade has a new face — and it's wearing a miner's helmet. Once written off as crypto casualties, Bitcoin miners are evolving into essential infrastructure providers for Big Tech's AI ambitions.
For investors, the signal is clear: follow the power. In the AI era, whoever controls the megawatts — not the models — may end up controlling the market in the AI era.
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Photo: VL-PhotoPro / Shutterstock
