Bitcoin Miners Notch Gains as Meta Signs 20-Year AI Deal With Nuclear Plant

Bitcoin BTC trading at or about record highs hasn't proven to be much of a benefit to the roughed up the BTC miners, but perhaps the growing energy needs of the AI sector could prove to be the industry's salvation.

Social media giant Meta (META) on Tuesday inked a 20-year deal with a nuclear power plant to buy 1.1 gigawatts of electrical output for AI purposes — yet another signal that tech giants are serious about investing into the necessary infrastructure to power their data centers.

Bitcoin miners, a number of which have begun diversifying their operations for AI purposes, could be benefiting from the news. MARA Holdings (MARA), Riot Platforms (RIOT), Hut 8 (HUT), Core Scientific (CORZ) and CleanSpark (CLSK) are among those sporting sizable gains, each ahead 7%-8% with less than an hour to go before the close of U.S. trade.

CoreWeave (CRWV), one of the hottest players in the AI sphere, is up 23% on the day to a new record and higher by more than 270% since it went public in March.

Cryptocurrencies themselves are modestly in the green, with bitcoin up 1.8% in the last 24 hours at $106,200. The broader CoinDesk 20 (an index of the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization excluding exchange coins, memecoins and stablecoins), rose 2.8% in the same period of time, buoyed by solana SOL, uniswap UNI, aave AAVE)) and near {{NEAR each gaining roughly 5-6%.

Crypto-related equities Coinbase (COIN) and Strategy (MSTR) are up 4.6% and 4.2%, respectively.

A check of traditional markets finds the Nasdaq higher by 0.8% and the S&P 500 by 0.6%.