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TeraWulf, IREN and Hut 8 Rally on AI Deals

Investors are increasingly pricing the miners as AI infrastructure plays, with TeraWulf’s 20-year Anthropic lease and Hut 8’s index additions driving the move.

By Zenz van der Wielen
• 2 min read
TeraWulf, IREN and Hut 8 Rally on AI Deals

Key Takeaways

  • TeraWulf jumped 12.8% after signing a 20-year lease with Anthropic for a data center in Kentucky.
  • IREN gained 8.01% after Freedom Capital Markets raised its rating to buy and Nvidia-related sentiment helped the stock.
  • Hut 8 rose 9.69% after being added to several Russell growth and small-cap indexes.

TeraWulf, IREN and Hut 8 all posted strong gains on Wednesday, July 8, but the move had little to do with Bitcoin. Instead, investors were focused on new AI infrastructure deals and index-related news, which pushed the three bitcoin miners further away from their usual link to crypto price swings.

TeraWulf Sets the Pace

TeraWulf climbed more than 12.8% after it signed a 20-year lease with Anthropic for a data center in Kentucky. The facility is expected to provide 401 megawatts of critical IT capacity and will be developed in stages, with the first capacity coming online in the second half of 2027 and full completion projected for early 2028. The site, called the Justified Data campus in Hawesville, used to be an aluminum processing plant and was acquired by TeraWulf in February 2026 for $200 million (€175 million).

Analysts say the agreement could generate about $19 billion (€16.7 billion) in contractual revenue over its life, far more than TeraWulf’s roughly $12 billion (€10.5 billion) market value. Compass Point lifted its price target to $40 (€35) from $28 (€25) and kept its buy rating in place. CEO Paul Prager said the lease validates the company’s AI infrastructure strategy and secures a long-term revenue stream. TeraWulf also sold its stake in a Texas project to free up capital for additional AI infrastructure investments.

IREN and Hut 8 Follow

IREN rose 8.01% after Freedom Capital Markets upgraded the stock to buy. The firm said the recent selloff had created more upside than the market was currently pricing in. Sentiment around bitcoin miner stocks also got a lift from a Nvidia keynote on July 8.

Hut 8 added 9.69% in one session after being included in several Russell growth and small-cap indexes. That kind of index inclusion often brings more attention from institutional investors and reinforces the market’s growing focus on the company’s AI shift. Over the past year, the stock has already surged 383%.

Why This Matters

For European crypto readers, the bigger takeaway is that publicly traded bitcoin miners are increasingly being valued as AI infrastructure names rather than just as leveraged bets on Bitcoin. That shift could shape how investors approach the sector, especially as contracts, data center capacity and index additions appear to matter more than day-to-day moves in the crypto market. For now, it is still unclear whether that trend will hold if AI spending slows later on.

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