Bitcoin miners surge on expectations of investment in Anthropic…AI transition infrastructure in focus

News that Anthropic, the developer of the generative AI Claude, is raising a large funding round has fueled expectations for AI infrastructure. Shares of mining companies that have shifted their businesses from Bitcoin (BTC) mining to AI and high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure broadly advanced.

On the 27th (local time), the Financial Times reported that “Anthropic is pushing ahead with a new fundraising of about $20 billion, and its valuation could be assessed at around $350 billion.” That is double the originally targeted $10 billion. After the report, shares of miners linked to AI infrastructure rose in tandem.

Among Bitcoin mining companies, IREN and Cipher Mining—both of which have been expanding their AI infrastructure exposure—climbed more than 12% each. Hut 8 and TeraWulf also posted gains of more than 8%. The view is that the ability to repurpose mining equipment and power infrastructure for AI compute has come back into focus.

According to the report, $10 billion to $15 billion of the round could come in as soon as this week, with the remainder expected to be wrapped up over the following weeks. The fundraising is said to be led by Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC and U.S. investment firm Coatue, with Sequoia Capital also participating on a large scale.

AI-related crypto assets also showed limited strength. NEAR Protocol (NEAR), an AI-based blockchain project, edged higher. The market is analyzing that capital inflows into major AI companies are lifting expectations of AI infrastructure benefits, particularly for miners that own power and data centers.

Meanwhile, Microsoft and Nvidia have previously said they would invest $10 billion and $5 billion, respectively, in Anthropic. With capital from major tech companies and institutional investors flowing in at the same time, momentum for expanding AI infrastructure is increasingly seen as likely to continue.