Analysts at research and brokerage firm Bernstein have initiated coverage on Core Scientific and IREN with an outperform rating, citing the firms’ hybrid bitcoin mining and AI data center strategies.

“Bitcoin miners are emerging as attractive partners to build out AI data centers with ‘ready power interconnect’ and data center operating capabilities,” Bernstein analysts Gautam Chhugani and Mahika Sapra wrote in a note to clients late Tuesday.

Core Scientific’s 12-year deal with AI firm CoreWeave last month, projecting $3.5 billion in total revenue, and IREN’s Nvidia GPU deal with AI startup Poolside in February were key catalysts, the analysts said.

In June, JPMorgan said investor interest was “surging” for bitcoin miners following Core Scientific’s AI hosting deal. IREN also raised …