Snapshot
- Ticker: CIFR (Nasdaq)
- Bucket: Data-Center Operators (HPC Pivots)
- Q4 2025 fund position: $154.5 M (10.47 M sh) — 2.80 % of 13F, #10 holding
- Heritage: Spun out of Bitfury in 2021; SPAC-merged 2021
- HQ: New York, NY
Business Overview
Cipher Mining operates Bitcoin mining and HPC-host sites primarily in West Texas:
- Black Pearl (Wink, TX) — flagship 300 MW campus; Phase I energized at ~150 MW.
- Odessa (TX) — operating mining campus.
- Alborz, Bear, Chief — JV sites.
- Barber Lake (Colorado City, TX) — the new ~300 MW HPC campus, fully committed to Fluidstack as of late 2025 (see below).
- Pipeline: ~2.6 GW of site capacity across owned and pipeline land.
The 2025 Fluidstack contracts repositioned Cipher from a “miner that might sign HPC deals” into one of the bucket’s most-contracted HPC operators by total dollar revenue.
Financial Trajectory (calendar)
| Metric | Q2 2025 | Q3 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $44 M (mining) | $72 M |
| Adjusted earnings | $30 M | $41 M |
| Net loss | −$46 M | (large, FV-driven) |
| Hashrate | 16.8 EH/s | 23.5 EH/s (target) |
The Q3 2025 revenue jump reflects both higher BTC prices and the hashrate ramp at Black Pearl. The HPC revenue line will not appear until Barber Lake operationalizes in 2026.
Balance Sheet (6/30/25)
| Item | $M |
|---|---|
| Cash | 62.7 |
| BTC holdings (~1,121 BTC) | 112.1 |
| Long-term borrowings | 167.1 (incl. $172.5 M convertible) |
A separate ~$333 M raise in November 2025 funds the Barber Lake build-out for the Fluidstack expansion. The capital stack remains lean compared to peers — the Google equity warrant in the Fluidstack deal (see below) provides a non-dilutive credit enhancement.
The Fluidstack / Google Deal — Central Asset
The two Fluidstack contracts in late 2025 are why CIFR sits in the fund:
- September 25, 2025: 168 MW critical IT load (244 MW gross), 10-year initial term + 2× 5-year extensions, ~1.4 B of Fluidstack’s lease obligations and receives warrants for a 5.4 % equity stake in Cipher.
- November 20, 2025: Additional 39 MW (56 MW gross), 10-year, ~$830 M revenue, expanding Fluidstack at Barber Lake.
- Combined commitment: entire 300 MW Barber Lake campus committed to Fluidstack, ~$3.8 B aggregate contracted revenue, with Google’s credit support.
The structure is unusual — Fluidstack is the legal tenant, but Google’s backstop and equity warrant make this effectively a Google-anchored data-center deal. The Google warrant means CIFR upside is materially aligned with one of the most creditworthy possible counterparties in the AI cycle.
Operational KPIs
- Hashrate: ~23.5 EH/s end-Q3 2025 target
- BTC mined Q3 2025: not separately disclosed; production tracked monthly
- Black Pearl Phase I: ~150 MW energized (of 300 MW total site)
- Barber Lake: 300 MW, fully committed to Fluidstack, build through 2026–2027
- Total pipeline: ~2.6 GW
Why It Fits the Thesis
Cipher is the bucket’s most-contracted-by-late-2025 name on a contracted-revenue-per-MW basis after the Fluidstack/Google deals. The fund’s $154 M position size — third-largest in the data-centers bucket after CORZ and IREN — reflects high conviction that the Fluidstack contracts revalue Cipher from a mining multiple to a data-center multiple. The Google equity warrant also reduces the existential counterparty risk that hangs over CoreWeave-anchored peers.
Position History in the Fund
| Quarter | Position |
|---|---|
| Q3 2025 | New |
| Q4 2025 | Maintained / slightly increased |
Risks
- Fluidstack is a smaller AI cloud counterparty than CoreWeave; Google’s backstop mitigates but does not eliminate.
- Construction execution risk at the Barber Lake greenfield build.
- West Texas power competitive intensity — every major miner and several hyperscalers are competing for the same grid capacity.
- Bitcoin price still drives most of the cash flow until 2026–2027 when Barber Lake comes online.
- Convertible dilution if equity rallies above conversion thresholds.