Institution: AI data center demand may drive Bitcoin mining companies to reassess, has announced over $90 billion in cooperation

Research firm Bernstein released a report stating that as the demand for AI data centers explodes, Bitcoin mining companies are becoming important participants in large-scale computing infrastructure, with a positive outlook on the future performance of miners such as IREN, Riot Platforms, CleanSpark, and Core Scientific.

The report points out that major cloud providers, AI cloud service providers, and chip companies have announced over $90 billion in AI infrastructure collaborations, involving approximately 3.7 GW of power capacity. Bernstein states that "Follow the Gigawatts" is becoming the core of competition in AI infrastructure, and the large-scale power resources controlled by mining companies hold strategic value.

Analysts have given IREN, Riot, CleanSpark, and Core Scientific an "outperform" rating, with a target price of $100 for IREN, indicating about a 98% upside potential from the current stock price; CleanSpark has a target price of $24, corresponding to about a 78% upside potential.

The report states that Bitcoin mining companies currently control over 27 GW of planned power capacity, and in some areas of the United States, the new 1 GW power connection cycle may take up to 50 months, making existing mining sites important locations for the expansion of AI data centers.

Bernstein also mentioned several AI collaboration cases, including IREN planning a 5 GW AI computing park based on NVIDIA's AI Factory architecture, and Riot reaching a collaboration with AMD for an AI data center of up to 200 MW.

However, analysts also warned that the industry still faces challenges such as environmental reviews, grid capacity, and regulatory approvals. Additionally, if mining companies overly shift their computing resources towards AI, they may miss out on future gains during the Bitcoin bull market cycle.