Bitcoin miners have shifted higher over the past week as cryptocurrency prices look to rebound from a mid-August tumble. But two players, Iren and Cipher Mining, have led the pack with strong rallies as their artificial intelligence strategies develop.
Iren is trading around record highs following its earnings report last week and announcement that it has been named a "Nvidia preferred partner." The stock soared nearly 24% last week, and has added to that spike with a more than 9% gain so far this week.
Australia-based Iren, previously called Iris Energy, on Aug. 28 reported Q4 2025 earnings of 65 cents per share, up from a 24-cent loss a year ago, on 228% revenue growth to $187.3 million. Analysts expected quarterly EPS of 18 cents and sales totaling $188.9 million, according to FactSet.
Bitcoin mining revenue grew 233% to $180.3 million, slightly below analyst expectations.
Iren Lands Nvidia Preferred Partner Status
AI cloud computing capacity increased 132% to 1,900 Nvidia H100 and H200 GPUs installed during the year. Separately, Iren reported that it now has Nvidia preferred partner status and said it purchased an additional 1,200 air-cooled Nvidia B300s and 1,200 liquid-cooled Nvidia GB300s for around $168 million. The additions expand the bitcoin miner's total GPU fleet to 10,900 Nvidia GPUs.
Meanwhile, Co-CEO Dan Roberts during the investor call said that Nvidia preferred partner status "enhances supply access and helps broaden our customer pipeline."
Roberts also noted that the already large market for AI is accelerating, while supply is constrained.
"We have the platform to meet market demand for AI cloud and meet that reasonably quickly," he said. "That is why we are immediately scaling to more than 10,000 GPUs, but also now importantly focusing on what comes next."
Multiple analysts hiked their price targets on IREN stock following results.
Bitcoin Miners Forge Lucrative AI Deals. They Have This Advantage.
H.C. Wainwright in a research note highlighted Iren's significant near-term artificial intelligence and cloud services expansion. Iren's preferred partner status with Nvidia should enhance access to new GPU units, the firm wrote, and expects total revenue to soar 150% year-over-year for 2026. H.C. Wainwright lifted its price target on IREN to 36 from 21 and kept a buy rating on the shares, The Fly reported.
Macquarie also lifted its price target on Iren to 33 from 20 and kept an outperform rating on the shares. The firm noted that bitcoin's price and Iren's AI business are both ramping up, while site development continues for high-performance computing services. The company continues to make meaningful strides in GPU procurement and financing, while the Nvidia deal offers an opportunity for big upside, Macquarie wrote.
However, JonesResearch on Tuesday downgraded IREN stock to Hold from Buy, noting some concerns. Analyst Stephen Glagola wrote that he remains cautious about potential erosion of its supply-side advantages and the transitory nature of certain client demand, according to The Fly. Glagola said there's potential risk that Iren may transition from "one capex-intensive treadmill" in bitcoin mining to another in AI cloud services.
Cipher Mining
Cipher Mining has also rallied over the past couple of weeks, hitting a record high intraday Wednesday, and rounded out August with a nearly 40% gain on the month. With September, barely started, shares are already up more than 9% for the month.
The company in early August announced that it completed and began bitcoin mining at its Black Pearl Phase 1 site in Texas. Cipher said that it has decided to proceed with a new plan for its Black Pearl Phase II buildout, which will bridge both AI computing power and hydropowered bitcoin mining.
"In the long run, we expect this site to be fully leased by HPC tenants," CEO Tyler Page said in the Q2 earnings release from early August. He added that the infrastructure for the Black Pearl Phase II site will enable the company to monetize power access quickly for both bitcoin mining and HPC. Still, bitcoin mining will likely remain the focus for the site in the near term, while Cipher builds out its 2.6 gigawatt pipeline.
"We're well equipped to become a leading developer of HPC data centers, while continuing to set the standard in bitcoin mining," Page said.
Canaccord on Aug. 20 raised its price target on CIFR stock to 9 from 8 and kept a buy rating on the shares, according to The Fly. The firm complimented Cipher's Q2 execution, noting its differentiated approach to bitcoin mining and AI hosting markets. Cipher continues to see some of the cheapest power costs across the bitcoin mining industry while developing its AI portfolio strategy, Canaccord wrote.
Bitcoin Miners Expanding To AI
A number of bitcoin miners are expanding their businesses to include AI and HPC services.
TeraWulf recently announced two, 10-year HPC co-location agreements with Fluidstack, which included a $1.8 billion investment from Google in exchange for about an 8% stake in TeraWulf.
Hut 8, Hive Digital and Bitdeer have also expanded into AI solutions.
Bit Digital, which recently transitioned to an ethereum treasury company, last month carved out its AI infrastructure subsidiary WhiteFiber into a separate public entity. WhiteFiber debuted on the Nasdaq on Aug. 17 at 17 per share.
You can follow Harrison Miller for more stock news and updates on X/Twitter @IBD_Harrison
