Cipher Mining Signs a Google-Backed $3 Billion AI Hosting Agreement
Bitcoin miner Cipher Mining signed a 10-year, 168 MW high-performance-computing hosting agreement with Fluidstack worth about $3 billion in contracted revenue, with Google backstopping $1.4 billion of Fluidstack's obligations and receiving an equity stake in Cipher.
On September 25, 2025, Cipher Mining announced a ten-year high-performance-computing hosting agreement with AI cloud company Fluidstack. Cipher committed to deliver 168 megawatts of critical IT load at its Barber Lake site in Texas, with the agreement representing approximately $3 billion in contracted revenue over its initial term. Google agreed to backstop $1.4 billion of Fluidstack's obligations and in return received warrants representing roughly a 5.4% equity stake in Cipher.
Cipher had been built as an industrial-scale Bitcoin miner, making the transaction historically relevant to Bitcoin even though the new customer workload was artificial intelligence rather than mining. Bitcoin miners had accumulated a scarce combination of grid interconnections, powered land, data-center expertise, and access to large blocks of electricity. The AI boom suddenly gave some of those same assets a competing use with potentially different economics.
The Fluidstack agreement therefore documented a major transition in the mining industry: infrastructure developed through Bitcoin mining could be redeployed or expanded for AI and high-performance computing. Cipher did not cease being a Bitcoin company on September 25, but the scale of the contract and Google's involvement made the diversification strategy materially different from a routine hosting announcement. It foreshadowed a broader contest over whether mining companies would keep scarce power dedicated to hashpower or redirect it toward AI workloads.