Cipher Digital shares jumped 11.25 percent as its Google-backed Barber Lake AI data center approaches commercial launch this month.
NEW YORK — Shares of Cipher Digital Inc. rose 11.25% to $16.79 on Tuesday, gaining $1.70 per share. The New York-based company’s rapid pivot from Bitcoin mining to AI data center development continues to attract investor interest ahead of the planned commercial launch of one of its flagship hyperscale facilities this month.
Formerly Cipher Mining, the company officially rebranded to Cipher Digital in February, a move it said reflected a strategic shift toward developing high-performance computing (HPC) data centers for hyperscale cloud tenants rather than focusing primarily on Bitcoin mining. This transition has accelerated throughout 2026, with the company winding down Bitcoin mining operations at its Black Pearl campus in Texas to reallocate power capacity and land for AI infrastructure customers.
At the center of this transformation is the Barber Lake campus in Colorado City, Texas, developed under a 10-year hosting agreement with Fluidstack, an AI cloud platform backed by Google. Under the deal, Cipher will deliver 168 megawatts of critical IT load across 587 acres, supported by up to 244 megawatts of gross capacity, with room to expand to 500 megawatts of total capacity. Google has agreed to backstop $1.4 billion of Fluidstack’s contractual obligations in exchange for an approximate 5.4% equity stake in Cipher. Per the company’s timeline, Barber Lake is scheduled to begin operations this September, with phased capacity deliveries as individual data halls achieve “rack-ready” status between September 2026 and February 2027.
Barber Lake is just one component of a broader contracted backlog that has reshaped Cipher’s financial profile over the past year. Total contracted backlog now stands at approximately $9.3 billion, anchored by three hyperscale leases. The largest is a 15-year, 300-megawatt agreement with Amazon Web Services at the Black Pearl campus, structured through a joint venture and generating roughly $5.5 billion in contracted revenue alone. To help de-risk the buildout, Amazon has agreed to absorb construction cost overruns exceeding $9.5 million per megawatt of critical IT load. Cipher has also indicated an initial rent commencement date of October 1 for Black Pearl. A third hyperscale lease, executed with an unnamed investment-grade tenant in late March, completes the company’s current anchor contract portfolio.
To fund these expansions, Cipher closed a $2 billion high-yield bond offering dedicated to the Black Pearl buildout. In March, the company also secured a $200 million revolving credit facility, which provides up to $250 million in total committed capacity when including the accordion option, per regulatory filings. Cipher stated that this financing structure ensures strong liquidity and eliminates any near-term need to raise additional equity.
Cipher’s second-quarter 2026 revenue, reported on August 4, declined to $25 million as the business shifted away from Bitcoin mining toward its still-ramping contracted data center operations, resulting in a net loss of $114 million for the period. Bitcoin mining revenue alone was reported at $34.8 million for the quarter, down from approximately $60 million in the fourth quarter of 2025, reflecting the deliberate wind-down of mining activities at Black Pearl. For the full 2025 fiscal year, Cipher reported revenue of $223.94 million, a 48% increase year-over-year, though full-year losses widened sharply to $822.24 million.
Despite these losses, which stem from the heavy upfront capital required to develop large-scale data center infrastructure, Wall Street analysts have grown increasingly bullish as Cipher’s hyperscale contracts solidified. Seventeen analysts currently cover Cipher Digital, assigning a consensus Strong Buy rating with no sell recommendations. The average 12-month price target stands at approximately $32, suggesting significant upside from current levels, with individual targets ranging from $22 to $69. On September 1, Bernstein reaffirmed its Buy rating in a research note.
This shift in analyst sentiment marks a dramatic departure from earlier valuations. According to a recent review of the company’s valuation history, the mean analyst price target stood at just $7.77 in March 2025, rising to nearly $28 by spring 2026 as Cipher’s pivot toward AI infrastructure gained traction among investors and analysts.
Cipher’s stock has remained volatile despite its growing contract backlog, with shares trading within a broad 52-week range of approximately $10 to just above $30. The company’s market capitalization now stands at roughly $6.3 billion, reflecting a valuation increasingly driven by the rollout pace of its hyperscale data center capacity and contracted revenue generation, rather than Bitcoin prices or mining output. This fundamental shift has altered how investors evaluate the stock compared to its earlier years as a pure-play cryptocurrency miner.
With Barber Lake’s operational launch expected this month and Black Pearl’s initial rent commencement targeted for October, investors will closely monitor upcoming weeks for confirmation that both facilities remain on schedule. These developments will likely determine whether Tuesday’s rally signals the beginning of a sustained re-rating or merely another short-term fluctuation within the stock’s historically volatile trading pattern.