Key points
- Back in week 2, with bitcoin ripping, I floated the busted miners at Claude AI. It passed on CleanSpark (CLSK) near $12.65, called them falling knives, and bought MSTR instead.
- MSTR lost money. Then CleanSpark landed a $6.6 billion AI data center lease and took off. This morning Claude AI finally bought CLSK, at $15.53, about 23% above where it passed.
- The account is at $74.14. The new position is already red, with a stop sitting at $14.35.
Two weeks ago bitcoin was breaking out and I had an idea. I asked Claude AI what it thought of the beaten-down bitcoin miners, CleanSpark (CLSK) among them. CLSK was trading around $12.65 at the time, on its back, near what would turn out to be the low.
Claude AI passed.
Why it said no
The logic was not crazy, I will give it that. Its rule for this account is to only touch miners when bitcoin is rising and the miners confirm it, and it was doing the opposite. Bitcoin had climbed about 10% over two weeks while CLSK fell 23%, and it was red again that day on a green bitcoin session. Claude AI called it fighting the tape and would not catch the knife.
Instead it bought MicroStrategy (MSTR), the leveraged bitcoin proxy that was actually green that day. I pushed back, said I would rather have had the miner. It held its ground, kept MSTR, and set a real trigger for CLSK to earn a seat instead: reclaim about $13.50 on a day bitcoin was holding its gains.
You can guess how that went. MSTR lost me $5.57, sold right at the low the morning before it gapped up. So the trade Claude AI chose over CLSK was a loser, and the miner it dodged was about to do something.
The knife it dodged became a rocket
CLSK bottomed at $12.36 on July 13, one more day of bleeding after Claude AI passed. Then the story changed completely.
On July 14 CleanSpark announced a 20-year lease with a top-tier tech tenant to run AI computing out of its Sandersville, Georgia site. The number attached was $6.6 billion in contracted revenue starting in 2027, with options that could push it past $11 billion, plus a letter of intent on its roughly 885 megawatt Texas power buildout. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted its price target from $17 to $26.
That is the whole neocloud trade in one filing. These miners spent years pointing power at bitcoin, and now the AI cloud companies need that power so badly they will sign 20-year checks to rent it. CleanSpark still mines, 614 bitcoin in June alone, but the market repriced it in a day as a landlord for the AI build, not a coin machine. It traded 76 million shares on the news, five times a normal day, and the stock ran from $12.36 to $14.42 to $15.38 over the next few sessions. Bitcoin itself did almost nothing the whole time. Same as the IREN pop I wrote about last week, this was an AI datacenter move wearing a bitcoin miner costume.
So of course it bought the high
This morning, with CLSK green and pushing new highs, Claude AI bought 2 shares at $15.53.
Add it up. It passed on CleanSpark at $12.65 because it was a broken miner. It watched it bottom at $12.36. It did not buy the $6.6 billion lease news at $13 either. It waited until the stock had run for three straight sessions and then paid $15.53, which is about 23% above where it turned the thing down. It bought the knife once the knife became a rocket and everyone could see it.
I said what you are thinking. You are really buying the high again. It owned it, no excuses, and bought anyway. Within half an hour CLSK faded to $15.37 and the position was already red.
Why I am letting it ride
Here is where I break from my own heckling. I think the trade is defensible. I told Claude AI as much, that the neocloud power story is real and I would not be talking it out of this one, but the call was its own, same as every entry, hold and cut in this account. It chose to sit in the position. A company with $6.6 billion of contracted AI revenue on the books is a different animal than the falling miner it correctly dodged in July, and the chart is a clean breakout to new highs while the rest of the group confirms.
The honest counterpoint is the entry, not the idea. Buying the third green day of a run, right into the high, is the exact habit that has cost me money in this account. If bitcoin sentiment rolls over, these names still bleed with it, lease or no lease. That is why there is a stop-market order resting at $14.35, just under yesterday's low. If the breakout is fake, I lose about two dollars and move on. If it is real, I finally caught one.
The scoreboard, which still flatters nobody
Four trades, four losses so far, $25.41 of my hundred gone. The account is worth $74.14. This CLSK buy is the fifth swing, and as I type it is underwater by pocket change.
What I keep coming back to is the shape of the mistake. Claude AI was not exactly wrong about CleanSpark the miner. On the day it passed, the divergence was real and the thing kept falling. But it was so locked onto do not catch the falling knife that it missed the other truth sitting right there, a beaten-down name at a real low with a catalyst about to land is the asymmetric bet, and by the time it acted the asymmetry was gone. Cautious at the bottom, brave at the top. If it can fix that one rhythm, this experiment might actually print a green week. We are also running five AIs against each other on a pretend $10,000 if you want more of this. Check back next week.
This is general market commentary and opinion, not investment advice. Markets can go down as well as up, and you can lose money. Always do your own research and consider speaking with a licensed financial professional before making any investment decision.
