Today, the market had a few main characters to scrutinze. For this newsletter, where attention is scarce, we choose one: Bitdeer (NASDAQ: BTDR), because its a great example of the late stage Bitcoin mining pivot to AI. And how investors react to the deal over the coming weeks may tell us a lot about how they will continue to digest this well-told narrative.

For those who missed it, Bitdeer signed a $4.7 billion, 16 year lease for 133 MW at its Tydal, Norway facility with Volta (another neocloud). Bloomberg later reported that Volta signed a 6 year deal with Anthropic to the tune of $10 billion.

Believe it or not, the company has been in the AI game for a bit. Long enough for Semi Analysis to drop them on their quarterly rankings of neocloud providers as of April 2026 under the ‘Bronze’ category.

For reference, SemiAnalysis publishes the Cluster Max analysis fairly regularly, to the chagrin of many investors (looking at you, IREN fanatics). It’s a guide for “evaluating GPU cloud providers based on critical dimensions of cloud infrastructure quality and service delivery.”

The thing with Bitdeer, of course, is its really not a neocloud. At least not yet, even if the company has longterm ambitions in that direction. Let’s rank the firm’s business lines by Q1 2026 revenue, per DI Metrics:

As you can clearly see, AI isn’t exactly a line item worth paying attention to yet. But the Volta deal adds $66.1 million (or so, after costs) to Bitdeer’s quarterly income.

Markets liked the pickup, with BTDR jumping on the news over 10% early in the day, before a sell off ate into the gains. Let’s see how Wall Street picks this back up over the coming weeks, and if Bitdeer can make the next jump from one lease to multiple.

Today, Cipher Digital (NASDAQ: CIFR) and Hut 8 (NASDAQ: HUT) reported their Q2 earnings, with both companies missing revenue and EPS expectations:

Notably, Cipher Digital announced that it commenced initial operations for Black Pearl at the beginning of August — two months ahead of schedule — with Amazon now commencing rent payments on the lease. Cipher Digital also announced an option to acquire a Texas site for a new, 900 MW project, dubbed Appollo.

Which brings us to our next point. Shares of CIFR and HUT dropped following the earnings, partially on the revenue and EPS misses. But investors are likely also responding to a delay in ERCOT’s Batch Zero process after Texas governor Greg Abbott called for an audit of every data center project in this large load interconnection queue.

The audit will push back the timeline for the first batch of interconnection approvals under ERCOT’s new rules, and this may have ramifications for Hut 8’s 500 MW expansion of Beacon Point in Corpus Christi, TX and for a number of Cipher Digital’s sites in Texas.

Something to watch, as we’ll no doubt hear Batch Zero in plenty of earnings calls for Cipher and Hut 8’s peers over the next two weeks.

Cipher Digital plus Hut 8 reported second-quarter earnings as both companies move deeper into AI infrastructure.

Ionic Digital CEO Andy Stewart joins the show following the company’s July Nasdaq listing. He discusses its Nscale lease plus future expansion plans. We also break down Bitdeer’s first AI colocation deal, the possible Anthropic connection, Texas’ interruption of ERCOT’s Batch Zero process, plus IREN’s acquisition of Mirantis.

Cipher Digital delivered its first data-center capacity at Black Pearl two months early, with Amazon now paying rent on the lease. The company also secured an option on Apollo, a proposed 900 MW site near San Antonio, bringing its AI infrastructure pipeline to 5.3 GW. Cipher reported $25 million of quarterly revenue, negative $30 million of adjusted EBITDA, plus a $267.5 million net loss. KBW maintained its Outperform rating with a $32 target, implying 52% upside from the share price cited in its note.

Hut 8 reported $74.9 million of revenue, up 81% year over year but roughly 2.4% below consensus. Cryptocurrency valuation losses helped drive a $177.1 million net loss. The company also reported a wider-than-expected loss per share. Its contracted AI capacity has reached 949 MW, representing approximately $26.6 billion of expected base-term contract value. KBW kept its Outperform rating with a $157 target. The bank flagged Texas regulatory review as a risk to Beacon Point’s energization schedule.

IREN completed its acquisition of cloud-software company Mirantis in an approximately $625 million all-stock transaction. Mirantis adds provisioning, workload scheduling, monitoring, plus enterprise support to IREN’s owned data centers and GPU platform. The deal moves IREN further up the AI infrastructure stack, from supplying physical capacity toward operating a vertically integrated cloud platform.

MARA appointed Craig Hart plus Nancy Novak as independent directors. Hart brings power-sector experience focused on energy infrastructure. Novak has led major data-center construction programs. The appointments come as MARA expands its energy portfolio while pursuing more than 1 GW of initial data-center development with Starwood.

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