Cipher Mining's AI/HPC Expansion Takes Shape: Is the Shift Paying Off?

Cipher Mining’s CIFR AI and high-performance computing (HPC) expansion is clearly taking shape, supported by long-term contracts, visible execution and a rapidly scaling pipeline that reshapes the company’s growth profile.

During the third quarter of 2025, Cipher Mining executed two landmark AI/HPC transactions that strengthened its revenue visibility. The company signed two landmark hosting agreements — a 10-year AI hosting deal with Fluidstack, backed by Google, and a 15-year direct hyperscaler lease with Amazon Web Services (AWS). These agreements collectively establish Cipher Mining as a credible HPC infrastructure developer and lock in roughly $8.5 billion of contracted AI/HPC lease payments, with revenues expected to commence in 2026.

Execution risk has been a key concern in miner-to-HPC transitions, but Cipher Mining’s recent progress suggests the shift is advancing smoothly. In the reported quarter, the company highlights that construction at the Barber Lake site is already underway, with engineering, procurement and long-lead equipment secured and delivery of 168 MW of critical IT load targeted for late 2026. Importantly, Cipher Mining grew its contracted AI hosting capacity from zero to 544 MW in a single quarter, while maintaining a 3.2 GW development pipeline extending through 2029 and beyond.

While AI revenues will ramp primarily from 2026 onward, Cipher Mining’s secured hyperscaler contracts, advancing buildouts and prudent capital structure suggest the change is moving beyond promise to reflection. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 15.69% revenue growth in 2026 underscores expectations for accelerating contribution from the company’s expanding AI/HPC platform.

CIFR's Key Competitors in the AI/HPC Space

IREN Limited IREN competes with CIFR through a more aggressive, GPU-centric strategy. IREN is building a large-scale GPU cloud platform, led by a $9.7 billion Microsoft contract and expanding relationships with Together AI, Fluidstack and Fireworks AI, announced during the first quarter of fiscal 2026. These deals support IREN’s expectations of over $500 million in AI Cloud ARR by early fiscal 2026 and a roadmap toward 140,000 GPUs powering multi-billion-dollar ARR potential.

TeraWulf WULF is emerging as an AI/HPC competitor to CIFR through a long-term joint venture with Fluidstack, positioning TeraWulf as a power-first, infrastructure-centric provider for high-density compute. The joint venture targets long-duration contracts and is valued at $9.5 billion over 25 years. However, TeraWulf’s 250-500 MW annual expansion is largely back-end loaded, with most capacity unlikely to be online before 2026. This timeframe overlaps with CIFR's growth plans, intensifying competition as both target the same wave of hyperscaler and AI infrastructure demand.

CIFR’s Share Price Performance, Valuation & Estimate

Cipher Mining shares have risen steeply by 207.7% in the past six-month period, outperforming the Zacks Technology Services industry’s gain of 20.9%. However, the broader Zacks Business Services sector declined 7.8% in the same time frame.

CIFR’s Price Performance

CIFR shares are overvalued, with a forward 12-month Price/Sales of 21.15X compared with the industry’s 2.73X. CIFR has a Value Score of F.

CIFR’s Valuation

For the full year 2026, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for loss is currently pegged at 88 cents per share, and remains unchanged over the past 30 days. CIFR reported a loss of 36 cents per share on a year-over-year basis.

Cipher Mining currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report

This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

Zacks Investment Research