Bitcoin Mining and AI Infrastructure Stocks Surge as Short Sellers Face Losses

July 30, 2026 — Bitcoin mining and artificial intelligence infrastructure stocks exploded higher on Thursday, with multiple companies posting double-digit gains as a forced liquidation of hedge fund positions triggered a massive short squeeze across the sector.

Immediate Details & Direct Quotes

Keel Infrastructure Corp., formerly known as Bitfarms, led the rally with a 29.13% jump to $4.10 per share. Nebius Group N.V. followed closely with a 28.52% gain to $190.50, while Cipher Digital Inc. rose 28.30% and IREN Limited climbed 27.36% to $37.33.

The gains spread across the entire sector. Whitefiber added 27.35%, SharonAI Holdings rose 26.86%, and Bloom Energy gained 26.04%. Sandisk Corporation surged 24.05%, pushing its stock above $1,260 per share.

Among bitcoin miners, Riot Platforms gained 23.46% to $22.52, Bitdeer Technologies rose 21.91%, and Coreweave climbed 21.83% to $74.10. Core Scientific added 20.97%, while Hut 8 gained 20.69%, trading at $106.43. Cleanspark rose 20.23%, Terawulf added 19.44%, and Applied Digital gained 19.07%.

The rally was triggered when Citadel absorbed the bulk of a hedge fund’s liquidated stock portfolio, which had held large positions across several of the day’s biggest gainers. Market participants said the transaction removed a source of potential further selling pressure.

Market Context & Reaction

Bitcoin itself traded above $64,000 and near $65,000 during Thursday’s session, providing additional support to mining stocks that retain price sensitivity to the underlying cryptocurrency even as their revenue increasingly comes from AI computing contracts.

Microsoft’s latest earnings report also fueled the rally. The company’s shares jumped after results showed AI spending was generating returns, lifting sentiment across the Nasdaq and pulling AI infrastructure names higher with it.

Coreweave had an additional catalyst of its own. The company announced a collaboration with Leidos to provide AI cloud services for the U.S. Intelligence Community and the Department of War. The deal would place Coreweave’s computing platform inside classified facilities, with Leidos handling security accreditation and mission integration. No contract value was disclosed.

Background & Historical Context

Thursday’s gains build on a longer-term trend in the cryptocurrency mining industry. As bitcoin mining profits shrank following repeated halvings and rising network difficulty, publicly traded miners began converting their power-intensive sites into AI data centers.

These companies already control land, electrical substations, and power contracts that new data center developers would need years to build from scratch. Recent deals point to this shift gaining momentum.

Hut 8 signed a second 15-year lease worth $9.8 billion at its Beacon Point campus in Texas. IREN disclosed $2.8 billion in new AI cloud contracts and raised its 2026 revenue target above $4 billion. Terawulf signed a long-term lease with Anthropic earlier this year.

Keel Infrastructure has shifted focus toward digital and energy infrastructure for AI workloads, including a recently approved data center project in Quebec. Nebius has raised its power capacity guidance multiple times and secured investment from Nvidia.

What This Means

The same leverage that drove sharp gains for AI infrastructure investors earlier this year also produced steep losses in July before Thursday’s rebound. Questions about capital costs, power availability, and long-term AI demand remain unresolved for many of these companies.

For now, the market is treating bitcoin miners with grid-connected power assets as a distinct group within the broader AI trade. Whether Thursday’s gains hold will depend on how many of these companies turn contracted power into steady revenue over the coming quarters.

While many of these companies mine bitcoin, each also maintains ties to the AI, semiconductor, or high-performance computing sector. Sandisk and Micron supply memory for AI clusters where demand has outpaced supply. Bloom Energy makes fuel cells increasingly used for data center power, while Cerebras builds AI accelerator chips.