It’s hard to have any conversation about the stock market without touching on artificial intelligence. All of the Magnificent Seven stocks leveraged AI to reach trillion-dollar valuations, and some of the bigger winners over the past year have been in this red-hot sector.
While most investors continue to gravitate toward big names like Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA | NVDA Price Prediction) and Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO), there are several AI infrastructure stocks that can outperform both of those AI chipmakers over the next five years. These are three of the most promising picks available.
IREN
Finding the best AI stocks has been a game of discovering key inputs and which companies are the leaders in those industries. For instance, Nvidia supplies the AI chips, but those same chips need enough power to operate. That’s where IREN (NASDAQ:IREN) comes into play.
The AI data center provider has a 4.5 gigawatt pipeline after acquiring 1.6 gigawatts of power in Oklahoma. Each gigawatt is 1,000 megawatts, so the company has 4,500 megawatts in its pipeline. That number is a big deal since IREN secured $1.94 billion in annual recurring revenue through a 5-year deal with Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) for 200 megawatts of power. Stretching that 200-megawatt rate across 4.5 gigawatts yields more than $40 billion in annual recurring revenue for a company with a $12 billion market cap.
While it will take IREN several years to generate revenue from its entire pipeline, the company has already seen the strongest customer demand to date, suggesting that another multi-billion dollar deal may be announced within a few months.
Cipher Mining
Cipher Mining (NASDAQ:CIFR) operates in the same industry as IREN. It’s another AI data center provider that has a 3.4 gigawatt pipeline and multiple partnerships with tech companies. A 15-year deal with Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) for $5.5 billion and a 10-year deal with Fluidstack for $3 billion are some of the highlights. Those deals include 300 megawatts and 168 megawatts, respectively. Fluidstack eventually upgraded the deal to include additional megawatts, showing that customers are eager to buy more energy from AI data center providers after good initial results.
The company is energizing more of its gigawatt capacity each year, but the major opportunity takes place in 2028, when the company is expected to have 2.5 gigawatts ready for monetization. The company isn’t done, either. It announced a new 200 megawatt site in Ohio to wrap up 2025, which resulted in a 3.4 gigawatt pipeline. It’s expected to be energized in 2027.
Building these data centers is expensive, and Cipher Mining has been able to raise funds without diluting investors. The company raised $2.0 billion via senior secured notes that have a respectable 6.125% APR. The long-term deals with Amazon and Fluidstack, plus the rising demand for AI data centers, suggest Cipher Mining can receive lucrative recurring revenue from its pipeline and negotiate higher prices in the future.
New Era Energy & Digital
New Era Energy & Digital (NASDAQ:NUAI) is the most speculative stock on this list. Its market cap is below $300 million, and it does not yet have any operating AI data centers. It’s in the middle of transitioning from a legacy helium and natural gas operator into a vertically integrated developer of AI infrastructure.
Although New Era Energy & Digital is behind IREN and Cipher, it has almost as many gigawatts as both companies put together. A Q1 2026 investor presentation recapped the company’s 8-gigawatt pipeline. Its Texas site should have at least 1 gigawatt when it’s all done, and power delivery will begin in early 2027.
That’s a good site to have, but the big story is New Era Energy & Digital’s 7 gigawatt site in New Mexico. Initial power delivery is expected in 2028. The company stands to generate substantial annual recurring revenue if it can win contracts like IREN and Cipher Mining. However, this buildout will be expensive. New Era Energy & Digital will have to take on a lot of debt and do some shareholder dilution along the way. The company expects to sign a big deal with a hyperscaler by the end of Q1, which can help with some of the financing.
If New Era Energy & Digital gets all 8 gigawatts up and running by the end of the decade with long-term tenants, it can produce compelling returns.
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