Bitcoin mining company stocks soar, AI data centers become new growth engine

Bitcoin mining companies are experiencing dual positive factors, with their stock prices soaring due to rising cryptocurrency prices and strategic transformation towards artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure. This not only boosts short-term market sentiment, but may also fundamentally reshape their long-term investment value.

Boosted by bitcoin's recent highs and news of business diversification, the stocks of several bitcoin mining companies surged sharply in pre-market trading on Tuesday. Among them, Bitfarms and Iren led the gains, rising by 11.85% and 11.60% respectively; Hive Digital Technologies rose 6.82%, TeraWulf was up 3.68%, and both CleanSpark and BitFuFu also recorded different degrees of increase.

The direct drivers behind this rally are obvious. On one hand, the strength in bitcoin's price directly enhances miners' profitability and asset value. On the other, the market is increasingly focused on these companies' expansion into the AI data center sector, which opens up new growth curves independent of the cryptocurrency cycle.

This strategic transformation is drawing close attention from Wall Street. Analysts believe bitcoin miners’ existing electricity and infrastructure give them unique advantages in meeting the explosive power demand from the AI industry. This shift could trigger a reassessment of these companies’ value, transforming them from simple crypto concept stocks to key digital infrastructure providers.

AI's Power Bottleneck Highlights Miners’ Unique Value

The explosive growth of artificial intelligence is creating an unprecedented thirst for electricity, and power supply has become a hard constraint for the industry's development. Morgan Stanley points out in a research report that between 2025 and 2028, the US alone is expected to face a data center power gap of up to 45 gigawatts (GW).

The report analyzes that new power projects typically take years from approval to going online, making it hard to meet the AI sector's urgent needs. “Securing power” has become the primary reason for delays in data center projects. In this context, the unique value of bitcoin miners stands out. They possess the core assets most prized by AI companies: approved grid connections and large-scale power supply capability, allowing them to bypass years-long approval processes.

Morgan Stanley believes that for AI companies seeking rapid deployment of computing power, bitcoin miners are the “quickest to obtain power, with the lowest execution risk” option.

Undervalued 'Power Assets': Huge Potential for Valuation Restructuring

Currently, the valuation logic of most bitcoin miners is still mainly based on their mining business, but the market may be undervaluing their intrinsic value as “power assets.” Morgan Stanley emphasizes that “enterprise value per watt” (EV/Watt) is a key but overlooked indicator for evaluating such companies’ value.

Data shows US bitcoin miners possess about 6.3 GW of large-scale operational sites, with another 2.5 GW of capacity under construction. The report notes that many miners' current EV/Watt is far lower than their potential value as data center infrastructure, offering investors significant value mispricing and potential alpha opportunities.

Transforming these sites into AI data centers, their construction cycles can align well with the timeline for bitcoin sites to perfect power infrastructure, providing AI companies with ready-made solutions.

From Mining to Compute Infrastructure: Model Analysis of Value Creation

Converting bitcoin mines into high-performance computing (HPC) data centers can create enormous economic value. Morgan Stanley ran a value creation model assuming a miner converts a 100MW site into a “powered shell” data center (i.e., offering space, power and cooling but without chips or servers), then leases it out long-term to customers.

Analysis shows that if the tenant is a major hyperscaler, the project can create about $5.19 per watt in equity value; if the tenant is an emerging cloud services provider (neocloud), up to about $7.81 per watt in equity value can be created.

The report notes that this value creation potential of about $5–8 per watt is much higher than current trading levels of many bitcoin mining stocks. Additionally, this business model usually uses project financing, is highly leveraged, and avoids the technical and commercial risks associated with directly holding chips, making it attractive to all parties.

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