Bitcoin Miners Defy Nasdaq Rout as AI Infrastructure Deals Fuel Gains

Bitcoin mining and HPC stocks bucked a broad technology selloff Thursday, as investors continued to reward companies turning their power portfolios into AI infrastructure.

Cipher Mining climbed 4.7% as of publishing, while Hut 8 (NASDAQ: HUT) gained 5.3% and Riot Platforms (NASDAQ: RIOT) advanced 3.7%. American Bitcoin (NASDAQ: ABTC) rose 3.3%, TeraWulf (NASDAQ: WULF) added 3.1% and Core Scientific (NASDAQ: CORZ) gained 2.4%.

Sixteen of the 20 mining and digital-infrastructure stocks tracked by TheEnergyMag were higher even as the Nasdaq Composite fell roughly 2%. The divergence is notable because the group has historically traded as a high-beta extension of bitcoin and the broader technology sector.

The day’s gains instead reflected growing investor focus on the miners’ access to electricity, land and grid connections — resources that can also be used to support AI data centers. Recent multibillion-dollar contracts have provided evidence that at least some operators can convert those assets into long-term, contracted revenue.

Hut 8 said Monday that it signed a second 15-year lease valued at $9.8 billion for 352 megawatts of information-technology capacity at its Beacon Point campus in Texas. The agreement doubles the unnamed investment-grade tenant’s contracted capacity at the site to 704 megawatts and lifts the campus’s base-term contract value to $19.6 billion.

IREN separately announced $2.8 billion of new multiyear cloud-services contracts with AI developers. The company raised its year-end AI-cloud annualized run-rate revenue target to more than $4 billion from $3.7 billion and said about 85% of that target is under contract, according to its July 20 release. IREN shares were up 2.2% Thursday morning.

The announcements have strengthened the argument that mining companies’ power positions may be more valuable when redeployed for AI workloads than when used solely to produce bitcoin. That prospect helped insulate the group from Thursday’s broader retreat.

Alphabet fell after investors focused on its higher AI spending plans despite accelerating cloud growth, while Tesla slumped after reporting weaker-than-expected profit. A jump in oil prices toward $100 a barrel added to inflation concerns and pushed Treasury yields higher. The Nasdaq was down 1.6% shortly after the open before extending its loss.