Analysts at research and brokerage firm Bernstein said bitcoin (BTC) miners are positioned to benefit from rising AI infrastructure demand, assigning “Outperform” ratings to IREN (IREN), Riot Platforms (RIOT), CleanSpark (CLSK), and Core Scientific (CORZ), while maintaining MARA Holdings (MARA) at “Market Perform.”
The ratings imply varying upside from Monday closing levels, according to The Block’s data. IREN closed at $50.46 versus a $100 target, implying a 98.1% upside, while Riot Platforms closed at $23.18 against a $25 target, or 7.8% upside.
CleanSpark closed at $13.44 versus a $24 target, implying 78.5% upside, and Core Scientific ended Monday at $23.57, about 1.8% below its $24 target. MARA Holdings closed at $12.18 against a $23 target, implying 88.8% upside despite its Market Perform rating.
In a note to clients on Tuesday titled "Bitcoin Miners: Google-Blackstone Neocloud news - Follow the Gigawatts," the analysts led by Gautam Chhugani said bitcoin miners have become embedded in AI infrastructure development, citing more than $90 billion in announced AI deals covering roughly 3.7 gigawatts of capacity across hyperscalers, neoclouds, and chip providers.
According to the note, miners collectively control more than 27 gigawatts of planned power capacity, positioning them as counterparties to large-scale compute demand at a time when securing a single gigawatt of power can take close to 50 months across U.S. markets, including grid-constrained regions such as Texas.
