Cipher Mining (CIFR) may have crashed 33.26% from its lofty perch of $25.52 it achieved on Nov. 5, but the company’s journey is far from stalled. After attracting investors with its Q3 performance, Cipher has once again grabbed attention. This is thanks to its latest expanded 10-year High-Performance Computing (HPC) lease agreement with Fluidstack, an artificial intelligence (AI) cloud specialist that builds powerful HPC clusters for top-tier enterprises.
Following the announcement of a 10-year HPC colocation partnership with Fluidstack back in September, Cipher has now expanded the agreement this month. The updated agreement adds 39 MW of critical IT load (backed by up to 56 MW of capacity) to Cipher’s Barber Lake HPC data center campus in Texas, enabling Fluidstack to lease the site’s entire 300 MW capacity.
Altogether, the agreement brings in approximately $830 million in revenue over the initial 10 years, and if the two optional five-year extensions are exercised, the value could rise to about $2 billion, and potentially approach $9 billion over the entire lease period. And to support this expansion, tech giant Google (GOOG) (GOOGL) has increased its backstop of Fluidstack’s lease obligations by $333 million, bringing total support to $1.73 billion, enabling stronger debt financing for the development.
In addition, Cipher intends to fund the construction through project-related debt alongside approximately $118 million in additional equity. So, with this expanded agreement in place, is Cipher stock a buy now, even though it trades well below its 52-week high?
About Cipher Mining Stock
Founded in 2021, New York-based Cipher Mining originally began as a large-scale Bitcoin miner, building powerful facilities to secure the network and earn digital assets. With its market capitalization now at roughly $6.6 billion, the company still mines Bitcoin. But now, it is rapidly expanding into a broader role in digital infrastructure, developing and operating industrial-scale data centers that support both its crypto operations and HPC workloads, including AI.
Even after factoring in a steep pullback of more than 33% from its 52-week peak of $25.52, shares of this bitcoin miner have still delivered a massive rally this year thanks to explosive growth in Bitcoin mining output, a strategic pivot into high-performance computing, and new AI hosting contracts with major tech players.
The stock surged a stunning 312.72% year-to-date (YTD), as investors bet on future AI-driven infrastructure demand and crypto price momentum. And when stacked against the broader S&P 500 Index ($SPX), which has managed a far more modest 15.83% gain so far this year, Cipher’s performance looks even more extraordinary.
Inside Cipher Mining’s Q3 Performance
Cipher Mining dropped its fiscal 2025 third-quarter earnings report on Nov. 3, which failed to meet Wall Street expectations across the board. Surprisingly, the market didn’t punish the company. Instead, investors zoomed in on the brighter aspects of the report, propelling the stock up by an impressive 22% on the very same day. Despite missing forecasts, the headline figures were pretty eye-catching.
The company's Bitcoin mining revenue nearly tripled year-over-year (YOY), from $24.1 million to $71.7 million. And the output isn’t just revenue-based. Cipher Mining self-mined 689 bitcoins in the third quarter of 2025, up a notable 35% increase from 509 bitcoins in the second quarter of 2025, thanks to the company’s Black Pearl site’s first full quarter production, which boosted both capacity and efficiency.
Profitability trends turned sharply upward as well. Cipher posted adjusted EPS of $0.10, a dramatic improvement from the prior-year loss of $0.01 per share. And with several major deals underway, the balance sheet strengthened significantly. The company ended the quarter with $1.2 billion in cash and cash equivalents as of Sept. 30, up from just $62.7 million on June 30.
Beyond the expanded Fluidstack agreement, Cipher also landed a milestone partnership with Amazon (AMZN). During the quarter, the company signed a $5.5 billion, 15-year lease with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to provide data-center space and power for Amazon’s growing AI workload needs. Operations will begin in July 2026, be fully completed by the fourth quarter of 2026, and rent is scheduled to start in August next year.
Between this mega-deal with AWS and the expansion of its agreement with Fluidstack, backed by Google, Cipher is clearly shifting gears, no longer just a bitcoin miner, but a major player in the high-performance computing infrastructure boom.
What Do Analysts Think About Cipher Mining Stock?
A wave of enthusiasm is spreading around Cipher Mining on Wall Street. For instance, H.C. Wainwright turned more bullish on Cipher Mining, lifting its price target to $30 from $25 and highlighting the company’s direct colocation deal with AWS as a major stamp of credibility in the high-performance computing and AI data-center market.
Rosenblatt was similarly upbeat, calling Cipher’s first HPC contract a true “transformation transaction.” The firm raised its target to $14 from $9, praising the combined Fluidstack and Google partnerships as a “hugely positive” step forward.
Needham and Northland also joined the bullish camp. Needham lifted its target to $15 from $10, while Northland nearly doubled its outlook to $14.50 from $7, pointing to the now enhanced Fluidstack lease as a bigger win than initially expected and a key catalyst for Cipher’s accelerating growth.
Overall, Wall Street is clearly betting big on Cipher Mining. The stock enjoys a solid “Strong Buy” consensus, with most analysts firmly in the bullish camp. Of the 14 experts covering CIFR, ten recommend a “Strong Buy,” two see it as a “Moderate Buy,” and two prefer to stay cautious with a “Hold.”
The average price target of $25.04 points to an impressive 30.8% upside from current levels, while the most optimistic forecast of $33 suggests the stock could soar 72% higher.
On the date of publication, Anushka Mukherji did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. For more information please view the Barchart Disclosure Policy here.
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