As if the continued decline in Bitcoin prices wasn’t enough, shares of Bitcoin miners that have pivoted their business plans toward artificial intelligence infrastructure fell mostly sharply on Monday after Nvidia invested $2 billion in CoreWeave.
While the investment highlights the growing demand for high-performance computing as applications of artificial intelligence expand, it also highlights the challenges facing independent miners trying to reposition themselves as infrastructure providers in the space.
Shares of Cipher Mining (CIFR), CleanSpark (CSPK), Iren (IREN) and TeraWulf (WULF) fell 5%-9% after the news.
The decline reflects investor concerns that CoreWeave’s growing leadership in the artificial intelligence infrastructure market could limit upside for other players.
“Today’s decline in the AI and HPC space associated with Bitcoin miners is a sign of the commitment between NVIDIA and CoreWeave, with GPU allocation increasingly prioritizing the partnership,” said James Van Straten, senior Bitcoin analyst at CoinDesk. “This could weaken the financing prospects of independent miners looking to move to AI infrastructure. A $2 billion capital infusion would significantly expand CoreWeave’s AI computing capabilities, which will increase competition and squeeze the profits and market share of smaller players.”
Van Straten also pointed out that CoreWeave’s $53 billion market capitalization is already half of the peak valuation of the entire Bitcoin-AI mining industry in October.
“As with any mature industry, consolidation now seems increasingly inevitable,” he said.
The only stock to show significant gains on Monday was Core Scientific (CORZ). Although CoreWeave tried and failed to acquire CORZ in 2025, the two companies have continued to enter into a multi-year data center agreement. Shares rose nearly 2% in early trading.
Also performing well was Hut 8 (HUT), another diversified miner with exposure to artificial intelligence hosting and high-performance computing. Together with Core Scientific, HUT also provides infrastructure tailored for large-scale AI applications, giving it a competitive edge when computing demands surge. HUT shares rose 0.2%.
The shift to artificial intelligence is not new. Bitcoin miners, once focused on validating blockchain transactions, have been repurposing their data centers for more profitable workloads, especially as mining rewards shrink and electricity costs rise.
Nvidia’s latest move, however, suggests those resources may increasingly flow to larger, more tightly integrated companies like CoreWeave, forcing smaller companies to adapt or consolidate.
