Bitcoin mining stocks have rallied in 2026 as investors increasingly price them as power and data center plays for AI companies rather than pure Bitcoin miners. A CryptoQuant chart shared by analyst Maartunn showed year-to-date gains through late July of 83% for Riot Platforms, 72% for Hut 8, 50% for Bitfarms and 31% for Core Scientific, framing the sector as a race for power, grid access and AI-ready infrastructure rather than just hashrate. That theme was reinforced on Aug. 11, when Bloomberg reported Anthropic agreed to pay Riot $9.1 billion over 20 years for 191 megawatts of computing capacity at Riot's Rockdale, Texas site. Riot shares jumped 24% in after-hours trading on the news, despite closing the regular session down more than 5% and reporting a $237 million quarterly loss. More recent market data through Aug. 12 showed the rally remained uneven across the sector. Riot was still up about 60% year to date near $20 a share, Hut 8 had climbed roughly 98% near $91, and Core Scientific was up 43% near $21. CleanSpark traded around $12, up 20% this year, IREN was near $44 with a 16% gain, and MARA was about $10 with a 7% rise. Bitdeer, Argo Blockchain and Canaan, by contrast, were down about 20%, 24% and 71% over the same period. The shift reflects pressure on the core mining business. MARA said in its Aug. 6 shareholder letter that second-quarter revenue fell 27% year over year to $174.9 million and it posted a $611.3 million net loss, while selling 2,213 BTC during the quarter as it continued investing in infrastructure. Analyst Shanaka Anslem Perera wrote on July 6 that public miners including MARA, CleanSpark, Riot, Cango, Core Scientific and Bitdeer sold more than 32,000 BTC in the first quarter of 2026 and redirected capital toward AI contracts estimated at $70 billion across the industry. That pivot briefly pushed Bitcoin's network hash rate down about 4%, the first drop in six years, before difficulty adjustments restored profitability and block production stayed on schedule.