What Does Cipher Mining Do? Now Cipher Digital, an AWS Landlord

Cipher Mining, renamed Cipher Digital Inc. in February 2026 and still trading on Nasdaq as CIFR, is a US company that finds sites with large grid connections in Texas, builds data center halls on them and leases those halls to AI companies for 10 to 20 years. It has signed three campuses: two for Amazon Web Services (AWS) and one for Fluidstack, with Google backstopping part of Fluidstack's rent. Together that is 700 MW of gross power and, the company says, $16.6 billion of contracted revenue at 30 September 2026. Rent has started at only one of the three.

AI DATA CENTERS · Data as at 16 Oct 2026 · Next update: after Cipher's Q3 2026 results (2 Nov 2026)
Affects: AI Data Centers · Hyperscalers · Neoclouds · US

Cipher is the fourth former Bitcoin miner on the AI Data Centers layer, after IREN, TeraWulf and Core Scientific. Like TeraWulf and Core Scientific it stops at the building: the tenant brings the computers. What sets it apart is that two of its three leases are signed directly with a hyperscaler, Amazon, with Amazon's parent company guaranteeing the rent. Read What Is an AI Data Center? and Data Center Leases Explained first if the terms are new.

In short: Cipher controls grid-connected land in West Texas, builds AI data center halls with borrowed project money and leases them on long contracts. It has three signed campuses: Barber Lake (300 MW gross, Fluidstack, then an unnamed AI lab, more than $9 billion over 20 years), Black Pearl (300 MW gross, AWS, about $5.5 billion over 15 years) and Stingray (100 MW gross, AWS, about $2.0 billion over 15 years). Only Black Pearl is paying rent, since August 2026; Barber Lake starts in the fourth quarter of 2026 and Stingray in April 2027. Until then its revenue is Bitcoin mining: $24.8 million in the June quarter, against $66.7 million of interest expense. The stuck step is the hall clock: finishing the buildings on time so rent starts before interest and cost overruns pile up.

Education only, not advice to buy or sell any security. Figures are from Cipher's Form 10-Q for the quarter to 30 June 2026 and its business update presentation (both 4 August 2026), its Barber Lake release of 25 September 2026, its investor presentation of 13 October 2026, its convertible notes release of 14 October 2026, the Black Pearl (February 2026) and Stingray (June 2026) financing presentations, its Fluidstack releases of 25 September and 20 November 2025, and its 2025 annual report, dated as shown. All $ figures are US dollars. Gross MW is grid power at the site; critical IT MW is the power the tenant's computers can draw, which is what the leases price.

Numbers that matter

Contracted capacity

700 MW

Gross HPC power under lease at three Texas campuses; 493 MW of critical IT (our arithmetic: 207 + 216 + 70) · 30 Sep 2026

Contracted

Contracted revenue

$16.6bn

Weighted average lease term 17.3 years; Barber Lake over $9bn, Black Pearl ~$5.5bn, Stingray ~$2.0bn · 30 Sep 2026

Signed

Paying rent

1 of 3

Black Pearl since August 2026; Barber Lake from Q4 2026; Stingray from April 2027

Bind

Q2 2026 revenue

$24.8m

All from Bitcoin mining; adjusted EBITDA −$30.0m; interest expense $66.7m · quarter to 30 Jun 2026

Pre-rent

Debt

$6.0bn

$4.54bn of project notes + $1.47bn convertibles at 30 Jun 2026; $850m more convertibles issued 16 Oct 2026

Funded

Tenant credit

AWS + Google

Amazon.com guarantees rent at Black Pearl and Stingray; Google backstops $1.73bn of Fluidstack's Barber Lake obligations

Backstopped

Status chips are Second Order's read. Contracted revenue, NOI and lease terms are Cipher's own figures. Critical IT MW are from the lease announcements and financing presentations; the 493 MW total is our sum.

What does Cipher Mining actually do?

Find the power. Borrow against the lease. Build the hall. Collect rent for 15 to 20 years.

Power and land first. A signed lease second. Project bonds third. Rent last.

1. It holds Texas sites with approved grid connections. Cipher's three leased campuses are Barber Lake near Colorado City (300 MW gross), Black Pearl in Wink (300 MW gross, a former Bitcoin mine) and Stingray in Andrews (100 MW gross). It still mines Bitcoin at a 207 MW site in Odessa on a fixed-price power contract with Luminant. Its October 2026 presentation counts about 3.4 GW of further grid capacity it expects to energise from 2027 to 2030 and beyond, mostly in Texas, where it is subject to the grid operator's process for big new loads; its annual report lists one site in Ohio.
2. It signs the tenant, then raises the project money. Each campus has a single tenant on a long lease: Fluidstack for all of Barber Lake (207 MW of critical IT, in two deals in September and November 2025), Amazon Data Services for Black Pearl (216 MW, October 2025) and Stingray (70 MW, March 2026).
3. It funds each campus with its own bonds. Each campus sits in its own subsidiary that issued secured notes repaid from that campus's rent: $1.733 billion of 7.125% notes for Barber Lake, $2.0 billion of 6.125% notes for Black Pearl and $810 million of 6.000% notes for Stingray. Cipher has given completion guarantees on Black Pearl and Stingray and adds its own equity.

The pivot is recent. In 2025 all $223.9 million of Cipher's revenue came from Bitcoin mining. The first AI lease came in September 2025: Fluidstack, an AI cloud company, took 168 MW of critical IT at Barber Lake for about $3 billion over 10 years, and Google agreed to backstop $1.4 billion of Fluidstack's obligations in exchange for warrants over about 5.4% of Cipher. Fluidstack took the rest of the site in November 2025, lifting the 10-year contract to about $3.8 billion and Google's backstop to $1.73 billion. Our Fluidstack page explains that Google-backed lease model.

Amazon came next, leasing Black Pearl in October 2025 and Stingray in March 2026. Black Pearl stopped mining in February 2026 to make room for the retrofit, and its first hall was handed over in August 2026, two months ahead of schedule after the lease was amended at the tenant's request.

In September 2026 Barber Lake was extended from 10 to 20 years. Fluidstack's lease was amended and an AI lab Cipher does not name committed to a separate 10-year lease from the end of Fluidstack's term, on terms Cipher calls substantially consistent, adding about $5.2 billion and lifting the site to more than $9 billion. "Barber Lake was designed as a long-lived, mission-critical asset," chief executive Tyler Page said in the announcement. The same amendment moved part of the hall delivery from the fourth quarter of 2026 into the first quarter of 2027 because the tenant changed the design. Cipher had 66 full-time employees in February 2026, and its Black Pearl presentation names Quanta Services companies as the construction contractor.

How does Cipher Mining make money?

Today, Bitcoin. From 2027, mostly rent. In order:

• Bitcoin mining (today's revenue): $24.8 million in the June 2026 quarter, all of it from mining, with 207 MW at Odessa running about 11.6 EH/s. Cipher had recognised no revenue from any AI lease at 30 June 2026.
• Rent from leased halls (from August 2026): Black Pearl began paying rent in August. Cipher puts total contracted revenue at $16.6 billion across its three campuses, with average annualised net operating income of $843 million once they are running. That figure averages from August 2026 to July 2041 and is the company's own projection.
• Lease structure: the two AWS leases are triple net, so Amazon pays the operating costs, taxes and insurance, and Amazon covers construction costs above $9.5 million per MW of critical IT at Black Pearl and $10.5 million at Stingray. The Fluidstack lease is a modified gross lease with annual increases, where Cipher expected site operating margins of 80–85% on the first deal and 85–90% on the second.
• Profit so far: adjusted EBITDA was −$30.0 million in the June quarter and the net loss $267.5 million, including a $150.5 million non-cash loss from revaluing its warrant liability. Interest expense was $66.7 million, partly offset by $35.9 million of interest income.

Our arithmetic. On Cipher's own contract values, Barber Lake's first 10 years ($3.8 billion) average about $380 million a year, or about $1.84 million per MW of critical IT per year (3,800 ÷ 10 ÷ 207). Black Pearl's ~$5.5 billion over 15 years is about $367 million a year, or $1.70 million per MW (5,500 ÷ 15 ÷ 216). Stingray's ~$2.0 billion over 15 years is about $133 million a year, or $1.90 million per MW (2,000 ÷ 15 ÷ 70). These are averages across escalating rents, not rent rates, and they are not like-for-like: the AWS leases pass costs to the tenant, while Cipher bears some costs at Barber Lake. Amazon's two leases make up about 45% of the $16.6 billion (our arithmetic: (5.5 + 2.0) ÷ 16.6).

Who funds the build. Bondholders, mostly. At 30 June 2026 Cipher had $6.016 billion of debt at face value: $4.543 billion of the three campus notes, $172.5 million of 1.75% convertible notes due 2030 and $1.3 billion of 0% convertible notes due 2031. It also held $3.728 billion of restricted cash, mostly bond money set aside for construction, and $832 million of its own cash. On 16 October 2026 it issued $850 million of 0% convertible notes due 2032, convertible at about $15.31 a share, partly to fund extra equity in Barber Lake, and swapped $165.9 million of the 2030 notes for about 40.7 million shares. Our arithmetic: that takes debt at face value to about $6.70 billion (6,016 − 165.9 + 850).

Who gets paid. Construction contractors and equipment suppliers first: Cipher had $2,169.3 million of construction commitments at 30 June 2026. Bondholders at 6–7.125% on the campus notes. Google, which holds warrants for 24.2 million Cipher shares at $0.01 each. Who pays. Amazon for Black Pearl and Stingray, Fluidstack and later the AI lab for Barber Lake, monthly, for 15 to 20 years. Money sticks once a hall is handed over and rent starts; until then Cipher carries the build.

What limits it?

The hall clock first. Cost overruns second. Two tenants third.

1. Most of the rent has not started. At 30 June 2026 no AI lease had produced revenue, and the June quarter's interest expense ($66.7 million) was about 2.7 times its revenue ($24.8 million; our arithmetic: 66.7 ÷ 24.8). Black Pearl's first hall has billed since August; Barber Lake's first rent is due in the fourth quarter of 2026 and its last halls in the first quarter of 2027; Stingray waits until April and May 2027. Our Cipher Barber Lake analysis follows that clock.
2. Cipher pays for overruns at Barber Lake. Under the September 2026 amendment Cipher bears the first $359.3 million of costs above the original budget; above that, the tenant repays half over 20 years as extra rent with a return. Cipher's October presentation puts about $750 million of added project equity behind the extended lease. The AWS leases cap Cipher's build cost per MW instead.
3. Deadlines carry penalties. Cipher's 10-Q says it may face rent credits or other remedies if it misses delivery milestones, and the Black Pearl presentation lists a 120-day delivery delay, with a 30-day cure period, among Amazon's termination rights. The 10-Q also says tenant guarantees and backstops only take effect after rent starts and come with limits such as caps.
4. Two counterparties, one backstop that is smaller than the lease. All contracted revenue comes from Amazon or from Fluidstack and the AI lab that follows it. Google's $1.73 billion backstop covers about 46% of Fluidstack's ~$3.8 billion first term (our arithmetic: 1.73 ÷ 3.8). Google's warrants also carry a make-whole: if the shares are worth less than $430 million when they become exercisable, Cipher must issue more shares or pay cash to make up the difference.
5. The pipeline is power without tenants. None of the ~3.4 GW pipeline is leased, and most of the large Texas sites, including the 1 GW Colchis site and the 900 MW Apollo option, depend on the Texas grid operator's Batch Zero process for large new loads. Our note on the Texas large-load rule explains that queue.

Where the filings are silent we say so. Cipher has not named the AI lab taking Barber Lake from the end of Fluidstack's term, said how many MW at Black Pearl are billing, published the terms of the Black Pearl amendment, said whether buyers took up the extra $150 million of 2032 notes, or disclosed rent per MW on any lease, so we do not estimate those. Its own cost-to-complete estimates for Barber Lake are ranges in a presentation, so we do not use them as a number.

Who else does this?

Roles, not a league table.

What separates Cipher is who signs the lease. Most former miners lease to GPU clouds whose credit depends on their own customers. Cipher has two leases with Amazon itself, triple net, guaranteed by Amazon.com and with Amazon paying for cost overruns above a cap. The trade-off is time: those leases started billing only in August 2026, and the biggest contract, Barber Lake, still depends on Fluidstack paying and then on an AI lab taking over in the 2030s.

What would change this view?

The read on the model weakens if:

• Barber Lake's first halls miss the fourth-quarter 2026 rent start, or rent credits start to apply.
• Barber Lake costs run well past the $359.3 million Cipher has agreed to carry on its own.
• Black Pearl's remaining halls or Stingray slip far enough to give Amazon a termination right.
• Fluidstack misses payments beyond what Google's $1.73 billion backstop covers.
• Cipher signs a tenant for a pipeline site such as Colchis or Apollo, or the Texas grid operator cuts their power.

It stays intact while Black Pearl keeps billing, Barber Lake's halls start paying rent from the fourth quarter of 2026, Stingray opens in spring 2027 and costs stay inside the caps and thresholds the leases set.

Practical takeaways

• Cipher Mining is now Cipher Digital: a builder and landlord of AI data center halls in West Texas, with Bitcoin mining as a shrinking side business.
• 700 MW of gross power (493 MW of critical IT, our sum) leased to AWS and Fluidstack, with $16.6 billion of contracted revenue on Cipher's figures.
• Only Black Pearl pays rent so far; Barber Lake starts in Q4 2026 and Stingray in April 2027.
• Its leases average about $1.70–1.90 million per MW of critical IT a year (our arithmetic), but the AWS leases pass costs to Amazon and Barber Lake does not.
• The stuck step is the hall clock: finishing Barber Lake and Stingray on time and inside budget while about $6.7 billion of debt (our arithmetic) waits on rent.

FAQ

What does Cipher Mining do?
Cipher Mining, renamed Cipher Digital in February 2026, builds AI data center halls on grid-connected sites in West Texas and leases them to tenants for 15 to 20 years. Its tenants are Amazon Web Services at Black Pearl and Stingray and Fluidstack at Barber Lake. It also still mines Bitcoin at a 207 MW site in Odessa.

Is Cipher Mining now Cipher Digital?
Yes. Cipher Mining Inc. changed its name to Cipher Digital Inc. in February 2026 and kept its Nasdaq ticker, CIFR. The name reflects the move from Bitcoin mining to leasing data centers.

Who are Cipher's tenants?
Amazon Data Services leases Black Pearl (216 MW of critical IT) and Stingray (70 MW) for 15 years each, with Amazon.com guaranteeing the rent. Fluidstack leases all of Barber Lake (207 MW) for 10 years, with Google backstopping $1.73 billion of its obligations, and an AI lab Cipher has not named has committed to lease Barber Lake for 10 more years after that.

What is Cipher's Barber Lake data center?
A 300 MW gross campus near Colorado City, Texas, leased to Fluidstack and then to an unnamed AI lab, for more than $9 billion of contracted revenue over 20 years. Its halls are due between the fourth quarter of 2026 and the first quarter of 2027, with the first rent expected in the fourth quarter of 2026.

Does Cipher still mine Bitcoin?
Yes, at its 207 MW Odessa site, which mined about 346 bitcoin in the June 2026 quarter. Mining was all of its $24.8 million revenue that quarter. It stopped mining at Black Pearl in February 2026 to convert the site for AWS.

Is Cipher Mining a good investment?
We do not make buy or sell calls, and nothing here is a recommendation. We can tell you what it owns, who pays it and which numbers would change the picture. The decision is yours.

Keep reading on the map

• The layers: AI Data Centers · Hyperscalers · Neoclouds
• The terms: Data Center Leases Explained · Data Center Financing Explained · Who Builds AI Data Centers?
• The tenants: What Does Amazon Do? · What Does Fluidstack Do? · What Does Google Do?
• Other miners and landlords: What Does Core Scientific Do? · What Does TeraWulf Do? · What Does IREN Do? · What Does Applied Digital Do?
• Where it happens: US · Texas large-load rule

The members cut on Cipher's hall clock is already live: Cipher Has $9B Signed at Barber Lake. What Does the Price Assume?. This page stays the free Stack read of the Cipher model.

Sean

Writes Second Order by TKN — a plain-English map of AI infrastructure. Who gets paid, where money sticks, which step is stuck. Not investment advice.

Author page → · Editorial standards →

How we check this

Figures come from Cipher's Form 10-Q for the quarter ended 30 June 2026 and its business update presentation (both 4 August 2026), its Barber Lake lease release of 25 September 2026, its investor presentation of 13 October 2026, its convertible notes pricing release of 14 October 2026, its Black Pearl (3 February 2026) and Stingray (8 June 2026) financing presentations, its Fluidstack releases of 25 September and 20 November 2025, and its 2025 annual report of 24 February 2026, each dated below. Where we work something out ourselves, the arithmetic is shown in full. Cipher has not named the AI lab, said how many Black Pearl MW are billing, published the Black Pearl amendment terms, reported take-up of the extra 2032 notes or disclosed rent per MW, so we do not estimate those. Social media posts and press reports are not used.

Last reviewed: 27 Oct 2026 · Next review: after Cipher's Q3 2026 results (2 Nov 2026) or Barber Lake's first rent commencement
Spot an error? Tell us and we will correct it and note the change here.
Our editorial standards →

References

1. Cipher Digital, Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2026 (company, SEC filing), 4 Aug 2026 — debt table, Google warrant terms and $430m make-whole, $1,676.1m construction in progress, $2,169.3m construction commitments, no HPC lease revenue recognised at 30 June, backstops effective only after rent commencement, Odessa 207 MW and Luminant power agreement
2. Cipher Digital, Business Update, second quarter 2026 (Exhibit 99.2) (company, SEC exhibit 99.2), 4 Aug 2026 — Q2 revenue, adjusted EBITDA, interest, net loss, balance sheet, capital structure ($6,016m debt, $3,728m restricted cash), Black Pearl rent commenced in August, Odessa output, site pipeline
3. Cipher Digital, Cipher Digital Expands Barber Lake Lease Term to 20 Years (Exhibit 99.1) (company, SEC exhibit 99.1), 25 Sep 2026 — Barber Lake contracted revenue from $3.8bn to over $9bn, AI lab 10-year follow-on lease, phased hall delivery Q4 2026 to Q1 2027, $359.3m cost-sharing threshold
4. Cipher Digital, Project Compass investor presentation (Exhibit 99.1) (company, SEC exhibit 99.1), 13 Oct 2026 — 700 MW contracted gross HPC capacity, $16.6bn contracted revenue, 17.3-year weighted lease term, $843m average annualised NOI, ~3.4 GW pipeline, Barber Lake delivery schedule and ~$750m of added project equity
5. Cipher Digital, Pricing of $850.0 million of 0.00% Convertible Senior Notes due 2032 (Exhibit 99.1) (company, SEC exhibit 99.1), 14 Oct 2026 — $850m convertible notes due 2032, $15.31 conversion price, $165.9m of 2030 notes exchanged for about 40.7m shares, use of proceeds for Barber Lake equity
6. Cipher Mining, Black Pearl Compute presentation (Exhibit 99.1) (company, SEC exhibit 99.1), 3 Feb 2026 — Black Pearl: 216 MW critical IT leased to Amazon Data Services for 15 years, ~$5.5bn contracted, triple net, Amazon.com guarantee, $9.5m per IT MW cost cap, tenant termination rights, Quanta as builder
7. Cipher Digital, Stingray Compute presentation (Exhibit 99.1) (company, SEC exhibit 99.1), 8 Jun 2026 — Stingray: 70 MW critical IT leased to AWS for 15 years, ~$2.0bn contracted, rent from 1 April and 1 May 2027, $10.5m per IT MW cost cap, Amazon.com guarantee
8. Cipher Mining, Cipher Mining Signs 168 MW, 10-Year AI Hosting Agreement with Fluidstack (Exhibit 99.1) (company, SEC exhibit 99.1), 25 Sep 2025 — first Barber Lake lease: 168 MW critical IT, ~$3bn over 10 years, Google backstop of $1.4bn and warrants for ~5.4% of Cipher
9. Cipher Mining, Cipher Mining Signs Additional 56 MW, 10-Year AI Hosting Agreement with Fluidstack (Exhibit 99.1) (company, SEC exhibit 99.1), 20 Nov 2025 — 39 MW more critical IT at Barber Lake, ~$3.8bn total over the initial 10 years, Google backstop raised to $1.73bn, 85–90% NOI margin, modified gross lease
10. Cipher Digital, Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025 (company, SEC filing), 24 Feb 2026 — Amazon and Fluidstack/Google leases, Black Pearl mining stopped February 2026, site pipeline, 2025 revenue of $223.9m from Bitcoin mining, 66 full-time employees