Shares of bitcoin mining companies that have changed business plans to account for artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure were big winners in 2025, a run they continued into the new year.
And if big tech’s earnings this year are any indication, they may continue to reap the benefits of the pivot.
Fourth-quarter results and 2026 outlooks released Wednesday evening from tech giants Meta ( META ) and Microsoft ( MSFT ) — both of which are putting AI investments at the center of their growth strategies for this year and beyond — suggest there’s no slowdown in AI spending.
“We are only at the beginning of AI diffusion, and already Microsoft has built an AI business that is bigger than some of our biggest franchises,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. “We’re pushing the envelope across our entire AI stack to create new value for our customers and partners.”
Meta, meanwhile, forecast investment in 2026 of $115-$135 billion, well ahead of consensus forecasts of $110 billion.
Read more: GPU Gold Rush: Why Bitcoin Miners are Driving AI’s Expansion
Faced with a profit squeeze from bitcoin’s last halving event, which halved miners’ rewards, as well as higher competition and power costs, miners have opted to use their data centers to host AI and cloud computing machines. The move has saved many miners from going under as it has allowed them to diversify their sources of income beyond mining bitcoin and reap the profits of the continued AI-related hype.
In November, Iren ( IREN ) announced a multi-year cloud services contract with Microsoft to support AI workloads using advanced Nvidia ( NVDA ) chips, signaling a deeper shift to high-performance computing. Around the same time, Cipher Mining (CIFR) signed a deal with Amazon (AMZN) to provide 300 megawatts of capacity to Amazon Web Services (AWS), one of the largest infrastructure commitments to date by a bitcoin miner looking to capitalize on the AI boom.
IREN rose 4.9% on Wednesday ahead of the results, bringing its year-to-date gain to 47% and year-to-date advance to $524%. Up 1.2% on Wednesday, the CIFR is now up 17% in 2026 and 322% year-on-year.
Another miner that has so far successfully transitioned to AI infrastructure and high-performance computing is Hut 8 (HUT), which is up 26% year-to-date and 230% year-to-date.
The next test of the sustainability of AI and cloud computing-related optimism will be Nvidia’s next report on February 25.
Read more: Bitcoin miners chase AI demand as Nvidia says Rubin is already in production
