Wall Street bank JPMorgan is tightening its view on U.S.-listed Bitcoin miners as a wave of high-performance computing (HPC) trading reshapes business models and provides greater clarity on long-term returns.
The bank upgraded Cipher Mining (CIFR) from Neutral to Overweight and raised its price target from $12 to $18. Shares rose 4.2% to $14.74 in early trading.
Clean Spark (CLSK) was also raised from neutral to overweight. Shares rose 4.6% to $10.18 in pre-market trading.
IREN’s price target was raised from $28 to $39. The bank maintained its underweight rating on Bitcoin miners. The stock rose 2.2% to $43.20.
Overweight rated MARA Holdings (MARA) and Riot Platforms (RIOT) have lowered their price targets due to the decline in Bitcoin prices. MARA’s price was reduced from $20 to $13, and Riot’s price was reduced from $19 to $17. At press time, MARA was up 2.8% to $10.35 and RIOT was up 1.8% to $12.94.
The bank cited more than $19 billion in contract revenue for 600 megawatts (MW) of critical IT capacity signed by IREN and Cipher since late September as evidence that miners are accelerating their transformation from Bitcoin-only exposure to hybrid HPC operators.
JPMorgan currently expects to add approximately 1.7 gigawatts (GW) of critical IT capacity across its coverage area by the end of 2026, led by IREN and Cipher.
Cipher’s 45% drop from its recent highs makes it an attractive entry, the report claims, considering it has approximately 600MW of contracted capacity with major tenants such as AWS and Fluidstack. The CleanSpark upgrade reflects approximately 200 MW of potential HPC capacity at the new site in Texas.
The bank’s analysts are now allocating a higher equity value per megawatt, between $8 million and $17 million for colocation, and up to $19 million for integrated cloud, due to lower discount rates and greater cash flow visibility.
Riot and CleanSpark show the most benefit under full HPC transformation, but Cipher remains the largest long-term option when including unaccredited future capacity.
read more: Bernstein raises targets for Bitcoin miners as AI infrastructure efforts continue to gain momentum
