Stocks of Bitcoin mining companies that changed their business plans to accommodate artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure were big winners in 2025, and that streak continued into the new year.
And if this year’s earnings for big tech companies are any indication, they may continue to benefit from the pivot.
Tech giants Meta (META) and Microsoft (MSFT) released fourth-quarter results and 2026 outlooks Wednesday night, suggesting that the surge in AI spending is showing no signs of slowing down, as both companies put AI investments at the center of their growth strategies this year and beyond.
“We are in the early stages of AI adoption, but Microsoft is already building an AI business bigger than some of our biggest franchises,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. “We are pushing the frontiers of the entire AI stack to bring new value to our customers and partners.”
Meanwhile, Meta forecasts capital spending in 2026 to be between $115 billion and $135 billion, well above the consensus estimate of $110 billion.
Read more: GPU gold rush: Why Bitcoin miners are focused on scaling AI
Bitcoin’s previous halving event cut miners’ rewards in half, and mining companies facing profit pressure from increased competition and power costs have pivoted to using their own data centers to host AI and cloud computing machines. This move allowed miners to diversify their income sources beyond Bitcoin mining and benefit from the continued hype around AI, saving many miners from bankruptcy.
In November, Iren (IREN) announced a multi-year cloud services agreement with Microsoft to support AI workloads using advanced Nvidia (NVDA) chips, signaling a further shift towards 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). This is one of the largest infrastructure commitments to date by Bitcoin miners looking to capitalize on the AI boom.
IREN rose 4.9% on Wednesday ahead of the earnings release, giving it a year-to-date gain of 47% and a year-over-year gain of 524%. CIFR, which rose 1.2% on Wednesday, is now up 17% in 2026 and 322% year-over-year.
Another miner that has successfully pivoted towards AI infrastructure and high-performance computing so far is Hut 8 (HUT), which is up 26% year-to-date and 230% year-over-year.
The next test of the sustainability of optimism around AI and cloud computing will be Nvidia’s next report on February 25th.
Read more: Bitcoin miners chase AI demand as Nvidia says Rubin is already in production