JPMorgan: Crypto miners that pivoted to AI have pulled ahead, with IREN and MARA diverging

BlockBeats news, September 15 — As the market reassesses the value of AI compute and data center assets, the transformation paths of crypto mining companies are beginning to drive a widening valuation gap. JPMorgan on Monday upgraded IREN directly from underweight to overweight, raising its target price from $46 to $65, while downgrading MARA to underweight and cutting its target price from $13 to $11.

JPMorgan believes IREN has gradually shifted from a Bitcoin miner to an AI compute provider, with its advantages coming from deeper control over land, power access, data center construction, GPU deployment, and compute sales. IREN's AI cloud business grew 110% quarter-over-quarter in its most recent fiscal quarter, and together with its partnership with Nvidia and ongoing contract signings, the bank is convinced the company has an opportunity to join the ranks of top-tier "neocloud" operators.

MARA faces a more cautious assessment. JPMorgan believes its asset-light approach to data center development with partners such as Starwood Capital will dilute the value accretion from converting power assets into AI compute revenue; the available power at existing sites, land acquisition costs, and future expansion capacity will also limit its room for valuation re-rating.

According to BIT (bit.com) data, as AI-related stocks came under broad pressure on Monday, IREN fell about 3% in premarket trading at one point, while MARA dropped to around $11.66 during intraday trading, with the rating changes yet to dispel market concerns over capital expenditure and execution risks.