Bitcoin miner Cipher secures $3B Google-backed AI hosting deal

Google has expanded its push into artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure by taking a 5.4% equity stake in Cipher Mining, one of the largest publicly traded Bitcoin mining companies in the United States.

The investment is tied to a decade-long hosting deal with Fluidstack, a UK-based AI cloud infrastructure firm.

The 10-year contract is valued at roughly $3 billion, with options for two five-year renewals.

If fully extended, the deal could generate up to $7 billion in revenue for Cipher.

A $3 billion deal with bigger ambitions

As part of the agreement, Cipher Mining announced it will provide 168 megawatts of computing power to Fluidstack from its Barber Lake site in Colorado City, Texas.

The Barber Lake site currently has 244 MW of gross capacity, with potential expansion to 500 MW on its 587-acre property.

On its part, Google has guaranteed $1.4 billion of Fluidstack’s obligations under the contract.

In return, the tech giant receives warrants to acquire around 24 million shares of Cipher stock, equal to a 5.4% ownership stake.

Cipher will, however, retain full ownership of the Barber Lake project despite Google’s involvement.

Alongside the Fluidstack agreement, Cipher unveiled plans for a private offering of $800 million in zero-coupon convertible senior notes due in 2031.

Purchasers may be granted an option to acquire an additional $120 million in notes.

The company expects to use proceeds from the sale to fund its Barber Lake build-out, advance its 2.4-gigawatt development pipeline, and expand other high-performance data centre projects.

Cipher has also indicated it plans to leverage Google’s $1.4 billion guarantee to raise additional debt.

Notably, the guaranteed revenue stream makes it easier for the company to secure financing as it pivots further into AI infrastructure.

Strengthening AI and crypto crossover

Cipher chief executive Tyler Page said the agreement marks a pivotal moment in the company’s expansion into high-performance computing.

Page noted that what began as facilities built for cryptocurrency mining are now positioned to serve the surging demand for artificial intelligence workloads.

“We believe this transaction represents the first of several in the HPC space as we continue to scale our capabilities,” he said.

The deal also strengthens a trend already visible across the sector.

Several crypto miners, including Hive Digital and CleanSpark, have pivoted toward GPU hosting and AI services in recent months.

Market reaction and Alphabet’s strategy

While the news has failed to spark a major surge for the Cipher stock, the stock has already tripled in 2025, reflecting investor optimism around its AI-focused shift.

For Alphabet, the company’s shares are up nearly than 30% this year and over 70% since April, and analysts credit these gains to Google’s aggressive AI push, steady product launches, and a recent legal victory that eased regulatory pressure.

The agreement between Cipher and Alphabet builds on Alphabet’s broader generative AI strategy.

The company struck a nearly identical deal in August with TeraWulf, another mining firm retooling for AI hosting, where Google acquired a 14% stake.

These deals allow Google to secure cloud capacity through Fluidstack without building new data centres itself, while gaining equity positions in hardware operators.

Alphabet’s market value is hovering near $3 trillion, trailing only Nvidia, Microsoft, and Apple.