Cipher enters US wholesale power market with Ohio data center acquisition

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Cipher Mining has acquired a 200-megawatt powerfulness tract successful Ohio called “Ulysses,” marking its archetypal enlargement extracurricular of Texas and introduction into the PJM wholesale energy market, the largest powerfulness marketplace successful the United States.

According to Tuesday’s announcement, the 195-acre tract has secured powerfulness capableness from AEP Ohio, with each required inferior agreements successful place, and is expected to beryllium energized successful the 4th fourth of 2027.

Cipher said the installation is suitable for high-performance computing and information halfway usage successful summation to Bitcoin (BTC) mining. Financial presumption of the transaction were not disclosed.

The determination aims to conscionable increasing request from hyperscalers, ample unreality computing companies specified arsenic Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud, for information centers. “Hyperscalers are driving unprecedented request for large-scale sites,” said Cipher CEO Tyler Page, adding that the company's caller tract volition springiness it further capableness to grow its high-performance computing (HPC) hosting business.

The woody follows a broader propulsion by publically listed Bitcoin miners into power, information halfway and manufacturing infrastructure beyond accepted mining.

Hut 8, for instance, precocious signed a 15-year lease worthy astir $7 billion to proviso 245 megawatts of AI information halfway capableness astatine its River Bend field successful Louisiana, with infrastructure supplier Fluidstack arsenic the tenant and Google backing lease payments.

A fewer days later, Bitdeer leased astir 188,000 quadrate feet astatine a logistics installation successful Sparks, Nevada, to grow its US manufacturing footprint, according to The Miner Mag.

Bitcoin mining hashprice puts unit connected miners

The Bitcoin mining hash price, a cardinal measurement of miner gross per portion of computing power, has been beneath $40 since mid-November, a level galore operators presumption arsenic breakeven. The slump has forced mining companies to reassess their operating models arsenic margins crossed the assemblage stay nether pressure.

While galore miners person sought diversification done AI and HPC demand, immoderate are besides turning to renewable energy arsenic a mode to little costs and stabilize profitability.

Sangha Renewables precocious brought a 20-megawatt solar-powered mining installation online successful Ector County, Texas, portion Phoenix Group launched a 30-megawatt hydro-powered cognition successful Ethiopia successful November.

Separately, Canaan partnered with Soluna successful September to deploy mining capableness astatine a wind-powered tract successful Texas and is processing adaptive mining rigs that usage AI to optimize vigor efficiency.

Despite the mounting unit connected mining economics, Bitcoin mining stocks person rallied sharply successful 2025, signaling that nationalist markets are progressively focused connected miners’ semipermanent strategical positioning alternatively than near-term Bitcoin accumulation alone.

Among the apical 5 publically traded miners, IREN Limited is up astir 331% year-to-date, followed by Applied Digital (246%), Cipher Mining (250%), Hut 8 (160%), and Riot Platforms (36%), according to information from Google Finance.