Shares of Bitcoin mining firms that modified their enterprise plans to accommodate synthetic intelligence (AI) infrastructure had been large winners in 2025, and that streak continued into the brand new 12 months.
And if this 12 months’s earnings for giant tech firms are any indication, they could proceed to profit from the pivot.
Tech giants Meta (META) and Microsoft (MSFT) launched fourth-quarter outcomes and 2026 outlooks Wednesday evening, suggesting that the surge in AI spending is displaying no indicators of slowing down, as each firms put AI investments on the middle of their development methods this 12 months and past.
“We’re within the early levels of AI adoption, however Microsoft is already constructing an AI enterprise larger than a few of our greatest franchises,” stated Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. “We’re pushing the frontiers of the complete AI stack to convey new worth to our prospects and companions.”
In the meantime, Meta forecasts capital spending in 2026 to be between $115 billion and $135 billion, properly above the consensus estimate of $110 billion.
Learn extra: GPU gold rush: Why Bitcoin miners are targeted on scaling AI
Bitcoin’s earlier halving occasion reduce miners’ rewards in half, and mining firms dealing with revenue stress from elevated competitors and energy prices have pivoted to utilizing their very own knowledge facilities to host AI and cloud computing machines. This transfer allowed miners to diversify their earnings sources past Bitcoin mining and profit from the continued hype round AI, saving many miners from chapter.
In November, Iren (IREN) introduced a multi-year cloud providers settlement with Microsoft to help AI workloads utilizing superior Nvidia (NVDA) chips, signaling an extra shift in direction of excessive efficiency computing. Across the similar time, Cipher Mining (CIFR) signed a cope with Amazon (AMZN) to supply 300 megawatts of capability to Amazon Net Companies (AWS). This is among the largest infrastructure commitments up to now by Bitcoin miners trying to capitalize on the AI growth.
IREN rose 4.9% on Wednesday forward of the earnings launch, giving it a year-to-date achieve of 47% and a year-over-year achieve of 524%. CIFR, which rose 1.2% on Wednesday, is now up 17% in 2026 and 322% year-over-year.
One other miner that has efficiently pivoted in direction of AI infrastructure and high-performance computing thus far is Hut 8 (HUT), which is up 26% year-to-date and 230% year-over-year.
The subsequent take a look at of the sustainability of optimism round AI and cloud computing can be Nvidia’s subsequent report on February twenty fifth.
Learn extra: Bitcoin miners chase AI demand as Nvidia says Rubin is already in manufacturing
