Bernstein said in a research report on Thursday that its weekly bitcoin mining industry deal tracker recorded a new AI-related deal each week in July, with total volume exceeding 7.5 gigawatts. According to Odaily, Bernstein said the deals were equivalent to $150 billion under multiyear contracts. Bernstein said power access remains the practical bottleneck for the AI industry as new U.S. data centers face more political resistance, and that third-party computing capacity from bitcoin miners will retain value. Earlier this week, bitcoin mining stocks rose by double digits after Hut 8 and IREN announced large AI infrastructure deals. Hut 8 said its AI data center campus secured a 15-year, $9.8 billion lease agreement, while IREN disclosed a $2.8 billion cloud services contract with an AI developer. Earlier in July, MARA Holdings said it planned to acquire a site in Texas with up to 2 gigawatts of capacity to expand its AI and digital infrastructure business. TeraWulf previously signed a 20-year data center lease agreement with AI startup Anthropic, which said the deal could generate about $19 billion in contract revenue.
