Bitcoin Mining Stocks Fall More Than 10% Alongside AI Spending Warning

Shares of three companies with Bitcoin (BTC) mining operations and AI infrastructure plans fell more than 10% Wednesday, Oct. 14, on a day marked by an AI spending warning and a major financing move by one of the miners.

IREN Limited dropped 12.2% to $30.56, Cipher Digital fell about 12%, and Hut 8 declined 10.5% to $74.87 at the 4 p.m. ET close (20:00 UTC). The declines coincided with a U.S. inflation release, an AI infrastructure returns forecast and Cipher’s note pricing. The timing alone does not establish what drove the share declines.

U.S. consumer prices rose 3.7% over the 12 months through September, up from 3.4% through August. The figures were released at 8:30 a.m. ET (12:30 UTC).

A forecast put potential impairment exposure from AI infrastructure investment above $3.5 trillion by the end of 2030 if spending continues at its current pace. Covering announced project costs and financing through 2030, while reaching a 12% return on invested capital, would require AI data-center owners to generate $8.5 trillion in cumulative revenue. Revenue from enterprise and consumer AI tied to those data centers was projected to total no more than $3.6 trillion.

Will Sommer, Gartner senior director analyst, said “enterprise and consumer AI revenue will be insufficient to support profitable returns.” The projection said more than four in five specialized AI cloud providers may lose their independence by 2030. That is an industry-level projection, not a company-specific estimate for IREN, Cipher Digital or Hut 8.

The companies have disclosed revenue and projects tied to both mining and AI infrastructure. For the fiscal year ended June 30, IREN had $128.8 million in AI Cloud Services revenue and $578.2 million in Bitcoin mining revenue. In July, Hut 8 announced a 15-year lease for 352 megawatts of IT capacity at its Beacon Point AI data-center campus, with a stated base-term contract value of $9.8 billion.

Cipher priced $850 million in senior unsecured convertible notes carrying a 0.00% coupon and due Nov. 1, 2032. It plans to use most of the net proceeds for the Barber Lake project, high-performance computing expansion and development sites. Settlement is expected Oct. 16, subject to closing conditions.