The market is rewriting the rules of the game once again. On July 8, shares of the largest mining companies — TeraWulf (WULF), IREN, and Hut 8 (HUT) — showed confident growth. However, the catalyst for this movement was not Bitcoin's dynamics, but large-scale plans to build infrastructure for artificial intelligence.
All three issuers entered the top 16 most successful tech stocks of the day. And if you dig deeper, it becomes obvious: traditional mining is giving way to a new, much more profitable strategy.
The deal that changed everything: TeraWulf and Anthropic
TeraWulf shares surged more than 12.8% after signing a 20-year lease agreement with Anthropic. The deal involves building a 401-megawatt data center in Kentucky, with the facility's launch scheduled for early 2028.
According to analyst estimates, revenue from this contract could exceed $19 billion over the entire lease term. Unsurprisingly, Compass Point quickly raised its price target for TeraWulf from $28 to $40, reaffirming a "buy" recommendation. Company CEO Paul Prager noted that this agreement not only confirms the strategic course toward developing AI infrastructure but also guarantees a stable cash flow for decades to come. Additionally, TeraWulf sold a stake in one of its Texas projects, freeing up funds for new investments.
IREN and Hut 8: Picking up the baton
IREN shares rose 8.01% after Freedom Capital Markets upgraded the stock to a "buy" recommendation. The firm's analysts believe that after a recent correction, the shares have opened up undervalued potential that the market has yet to notice.
Hut 8, meanwhile, gained 9.69% in a single trading session. The reason was the company's inclusion in several Russell indices for fast-growing and small-cap companies. This signals that institutional investors have noticed Hut 8's pivot toward AI. Over the past year, the company's shares have risen by 383%.
A new valuation vector
The trend is clear: the market capitalization of mining companies is now more strongly tied to news about AI capacity leasing developments than to Bitcoin's price. In the second half of 2026, the market will closely watch whether this trend persists if capital expenditures in the AI sector begin to decline.
My expert opinion: We are witnessing a fundamental shift in the business model of an entire sector. Miners that can first effectively convert their energy assets into high-yield AI infrastructure will gain a significant competitive advantage. However, risks of overheating and potential cuts to corporate AI budgets remain key factors of uncertainty.