From Bitcoin To AI: How IREN And Cipher Are Hosting Nvidia-Powered AI Workloads

The Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) mining bust just found its silver lining — and it's glowing green with Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA)-powered AI. As Alphabet Inc‘s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG) Google and Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) scramble to secure low-cost, high-density data centers for their next wave of AI expansion, they've stumbled upon an unlikely landlord – the crypto miners they once helped render obsolete – now retrofitted with Nvidia GPUs to handle the compute-heavy demands of modern AI. Track BTC here. From Crypto Crash To Cloud Gold RushAfter Bitcoin's profitability plunged, miners sitting on cheap power and stranded infrastructure were forced to pivot — fast. Now those same megawatt farms are being reborn as GPU fortresses for artificial intelligence workloads. Cipher Mining Inc (NASDAQ:CIFR) struck a 10-year, 170 MW hosting deal with Fluidstack, backed by none other than Google, which also grabbed a 5% equity stake. Cipher's facilities are being fitted for high-density AI workloads using Nvidia H100 and Blackwell GPUs— a sign of how quickly miners are evolving into GPU landlords.TeraWulf Inc (NASDAQ:WULF) signed similar long-term contracts to host 360 MW of AI compute, while Iren Ltd (NASDAQ:IREN) (formerly known as Iris Energy) is expanding capacity to nearly 3 GW by 2026 — enough to triple its footprint and become an AI hosting heavyweight.Read Also: IREN Stock Up Nearly 900% Over 6 Months, Rises 8% Before The Bell: What’s Driving The Surge?IREN has also announced additional multi-year AI cloud contracts with leading AI companies for Nvidia Blackwell GPU deployments. With 23,000 GPUs currently operating or on order, IREN remains on track to achieve more than $500 million in annualized run-rate revenue (ARR) by the end of the first quarter of 2026. To date, contracts covering 11,000 of these GPUs — roughly $225 million in ARR — are expected to be operational by the end of 2025. New GPU contracts continue to be secured ahead of delivery, with terms supporting a roughly two-year revenue payback, highlighting IREN's rapid execution and customer demand.The New AI Cloud Arms RaceBehind these deals is a quieter but fiercer battle for compute real estate. CoreWeave Inc (NASDAQ:CRWV), once a small GPU cloud startup, snapped up bankrupt miner Core Scientific Inc (NASDAQ:CORZ) and has been leasing hundreds of megawatts from miners like Cipher, TeraWulf, and Applied Digital Corp (NASDAQ:APLD) to cement its position as an AI cloud powerhouse. Not to be outdone, Nebius Group NV (NASDAQ:NBIS) inked a $17 billion-plus deal with Microsoft Azure to supply GPU-dense racks from its U.S. campuses — a direct challenge to CoreWeave in the race to dominate AI infrastructure.Investor TakeawayThe AI utility trade has a new face — and it's wearing a miner's helmet. Once written off as crypto casualties, Bitcoin miners are evolving into essential infrastructure providers for Big Tech's AI ambitions. For investors, the signal is clear: follow the power. In the AI era, whoever controls the megawatts — not the models — may end up controlling the market in the AI era. AMD’s OpenAI Deal Could Spark A New AI Arms Race With Nvidia Photo: VL-PhotoPro / Shutterstock