Institution: AI Data Center Demand May Drive Bitcoin Mining Firm Reassessment, Announces Over $90 Billion Collaboration

BlockBeats News, May 19th, research firm Bernstein released a report stating that as the demand for AI data centers surges, Bitcoin mining companies are becoming key players in large-scale computing power infrastructure and are optimistic about the future performance of mining companies such as IREN, Riot Platforms, CleanSpark, and Core Scientific.

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

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

The report states that currently, Bitcoin mining companies collectively control over 27GW of planned power capacity, and in some regions of the United States, the construction period for 1GW of power access may last up to 50 months, making existing mining facilities key locations for the expansion of AI data centers.

Bernstein also mentioned several AI collaboration cases, including IREN planning a 5GW AI computing power park based on the NVIDIA AI Factory architecture and Riot partnering with AMD for a maximum 200MW AI data center collaboration.

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