What to know : Fourth-quarter earnings results from Microsoft (MSFT) and Meta (META) suggested no slowdown in AI-related spending. Microsoft highlighted that AI is now one of its largest businesses and pointed to long-term growth. Meta projected sharply higher capital spending in 2026 to fund its Meta Super Intelligence Labs and core business.
Shares of bitcoin mining companies that have shifted business plans to cater to artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure were big winners in 2025, a run they continued into the new year.
And if big tech's earnings this year are any indications, they might continue to reap the benefit of the pivot.
Fourth-quarter results and 2026 outlooks released Wednesday evening from tech giants Meta (META) and Microsoft (MSFT) — both of which put AI investment at the center of their growth strategies for this year and beyond — suggest no slowdown in the AI spending binge.
“We are only at the beginning phases of AI diffusion, and already Microsoft has built an AI business that is larger than some of our biggest franchises,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. “We are pushing the frontier across our entire AI stack to drive new value for our customers and partners.”
Meta, meanwhile, forecast 2026 capital spending of $115-$135 billion, well ahead of consensus forecasts for $110 billion.
Read more: GPU Gold Rush: Why Bitcoin Miners Are Powering AI’s Expansion
Facing a profit squeeze from bitcoin's last halving event, which cut miners' rewards by half, as well as higher competition and power costs, mining firms have pivoted to use their data centers to host AI and cloud computing machines. The move has saved many miners from going under, as it has allowed them to diversify their revenue sources beyond mining bitcoin and reap the profits of the continued AI-related hype.
In November, Iren (IREN) announced a multiyear cloud-services contract with Microsoft to support AI workloads using advanced Nvidia (NVDA) chips, signaling a deeper shift into high-performance computing. Around the same time, Cipher Mining (CIFR) signed a deal with Amazon (AMZN) to deliver 300 megawatts of capacity to Amazon Web Services (AWS), one of the largest infrastructure commitments yet from a bitcoin miner looking to tap into the AI boom.
IREN was up 4.9% on Wednesday ahead of the results, bringing its year-to-date gain to 47% and year-over-year advance to $524%. Up 1.2% on Wednesday, CIFR is now up 17% in 2026 and 322% year-over-year.
Another miner that has so far successfully pivoted to AI infrastructure and high-performance computing is Hut 8 (HUT), which is up 26% year-to-date and 230% year-over-year.
The next test of the sustainability of AI- and cloud-computing-related optimism will be Nvidia's next report on Feb. 25.
Read more: Bitcoin miners chase AI demand as Nvidia says Rubin is already in production
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