Bitcoin Miners Cipher and CleanSpark Upgraded by JPMorgan as HPC Shift Accelerates

Wall Street bank JPMorgan is sharpening its view on U.S.-listed bitcoin miners as a wave of high-performance computing (HPC) deals reshape business models and add long-term revenue clarity.

The bank upgraded Cipher Mining (CIFR) to overweight from neutral and raised its price target on the stock to $18 from $12. The shares were 4.2% higher in early trading, at $14.74.

CleanSpark (CLSK) was also raised to overweight from neutral. The stock rose 4.6% in pre-market trading to $10.18.

IREN’s price objective was lifted to $39 from $28. The bank maintained its underweight rating on the bitcoin miner. The shares were 2.2% higher at $43.20.

Overweight-rated MARA Holdings (MARA) and Riot Platforms (RIOT) both saw their price target cuts due to the lower bitcoin price. MARA’s was trimmed to $13 from $20, Riot to $17 from $19. MARA rose 2.8% to $10.35, RIOT gained 1.8% to $12.94 at publication time.

The bank pointed to the more than $19 billion in contracted revenue across 600 megawatts (MW) of critical IT capacity signed by IREN and Cipher since late Sept., evidence, it says, of miners’ accelerating pivot from bitcoin-only exposure to hybrid HPC operators.

JPMorgan now expects roughly 1.7 gigawatts (GW) of critical IT capacity across its coverage by late 2026, led by IREN and Cipher.

Cipher’s 45% pullback from recent highs offers a compelling entry, the report argued, given its roughly 600 MW of contracted capacity with major tenants like AWS and Fluidstack. CleanSpark’s upgrade reflects about 200 MW of potential HPC capacity at its new Texas site.

The bank’s analysts now assign higher equity value per megawatt, $8M to $17M for colocation and up to $19M for integrated cloud, driven by lower discount rates and stronger cash-flow visibility.

Riot and CleanSpark show the most upside under a full HPC conversion, though Cipher maintains the largest long-term optionality when including unapproved future capacity.

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