Wells Fargo Initiates Coverage of Bitcoin Miners on AI Infrastructure Ambitions

Wells Fargo has initiated coverage of four Bitcoin mining companies - Core Scientific (CORZ), Cipher Mining (CIFR), Hut 8 (HUT), and TeraWulf (WULF) - with 'Overweight' ratings. The firm highlighted the companies' AI infrastructure ambitions, contracted power, tenant quality, and execution as key differentiators.

The analysts noted that Core Scientific is the industry leader in converting announced deals into operating megawatts, citing its partnership with Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) which will translate into incremental near-term leasing, diversify the company's customer base, and provide a reservation pipeline. The initial agreements represent more than $14 billion in base contracted revenue over 15 years.

Hut 8 has 949 MW of critical IT capacity contracted with two tenants across two campuses, with Wells Fargo describing the credit quality of the contracted book as 'arguably the best in the space.' TeraWulf received an 'Overweight' rating and a $30 price target, pointing to its track record and the quality of its contracted and pipeline sites.

Cipher Mining was described by Wells Fargo as a 'high-risk/high-reward name,' with the firm noting that it is the only high-performance computing name in its coverage that trades at a premium to contracted net asset value. Cipher's tenant base was called one of the highest-quality across the sector.