Bitcoin Miners Bet Big on AI Infrastructure and Win. TeraWulf, IREN, Hut 8 Surge

TeraWulf (WULF), IREN, and Hut 8 (HUT) all rallied yesterday, July 8, but Bitcoin’s price had nothing to do with it. Each saw their stock prices continue to rally on separate AI infrastructure news.

All three companies were in the top 16 best performing stocks for Wednesday, July 8 as investors reward their shift no matter what Bitcoin does on the day.

TeraWulf’s Anthropic Deal Set the Tone

TeraWulf stock rose more than 12.8% after signing a 20-year lease with Anthropic for a Kentucky data center. The site will support 401 megawatts of critical IT load, online by early 2028.

Analysts project roughly $19 billion in revenue over the lease’s term. Compass Point raised its price target to $40 from $28 after the deal and kept its buy rating.

CEO Paul Prager said the lease confirms the company’s AI infrastructure pivot and locks in a long-term revenue stream. TeraWulf also sold its stake in a Texas project, freeing cash for AI infrastructure investment elsewhere.

IREN and Hut 8 Caught the Same Bid

IREN climbed 8.01% after Freedom Capital Markets upgraded the stock to buy. The firm argued the recent pullback had created more upside than the market recognized. A Nvidia keynote appearance on July 8 also lifted sentiment around Bitcoin miner stocks.

Hut 8 jumped 9.69% in a single session after joining several Russell growth and small-cap indexes. Index inclusion suggests institutions are noticing the shift toward AI. The stock is up 383% over the past year.

The pattern is clear across the sector, visible in crypto stocks to watch beyond these three names. Miner valuations now track AI leasing headlines more closely than bitcoin mining stocks ever tracked Bitcoin’s price.

Whether that holds once AI capex slows is the question for the second half of 2026.