BlockBeats News, May 19th, research firm Bernstein released a report stating that as the demand for AI data centers surges, Bitcoin mining companies are becoming key players in large-scale computing infrastructure and are optimistic about the future performance of mining companies such as IREN, Riot Platforms, CleanSpark, and Core Scientific.

The report points out that currently, hyperscale cloud providers, AI cloud service providers, and chip companies have announced over $90 billion in AI infrastructure collaborations, involving approximately 3.7GW of power capacity. Bernstein states that "Follow the Gigawatts" is becoming the core of AI infrastructure competition, and the large-scale power resources held by mining companies have strategic value.

Analysts have given IREN, Riot, CleanSpark, and Core Scientific an "outperform" rating, with a target price of $100 for IREN, representing a potential 98% upside from the current stock price; CleanSpark has a target price of $24, corresponding to approximately 78% upside.

The report states that currently, Bitcoin mining companies collectively control over 27GW of planned power capacity. In some regions of the United States, the construction of a 1GW power access may take up to 50 months, making existing mining facilities key locations for the expansion of AI data centers.

Bernstein also mentioned several AI collaboration cases, including IREN planning a 5GW AI computing power park based on the NVIDIA AI Factory architecture, and Riot's partnership with AMD for a maximum of 200MW AI data center.

However, analysts also warned that the industry still faces challenges such as environmental reviews, grid capacity, regulatory approvals, and if mining companies excessively shift computing resources to AI, they may miss out on future gains from the Bitcoin bull market cycle.