Cipher Eyes 1.5 GW of Bitcoin Mining, HPC Capacities

Cipher Mining is eyeing up to 1.5 gigawatts of expansion in Texas for bitcoin mining or high-performance computing (HPC), following option agreements to acquire three sites from Juvo Energy.

As announced on Tuesday, the sites—two located in North Texas and one in West Texas—are adjacent to transmission assets and are “in the final stages of approval for interconnection with 500 MW targeted capacity per site.”

Under the agreements, Cipher has the option to acquire the sites within the next two years, which includes 580 acres of land that can be either leased or purchased. The purchase price will be contingent on the number of megawatts approved for connection. Cipher asserts that these sites possess all the necessary attributes for developing HPC data centers or bitcoin mining operations.

This initiative comes as bitcoin mining companies are shifting towards HPC and AI data center capacities to diversify revenue streams following the bitcoin halving. On Monday, Bit Digital announced its acquisition of a tier-3 HPC data center in Canada, aimed at being vertically integrated for the HPC segment.

“We have seen increasing demand from hyperscalers for large sites that can be energized within the next three years,” said Cipher’s CEO, Tyler Page. “These new sites offer us tremendous optionality for expanding our HPC hosting business.”

Interestingly, Cipher liquidated 611% of its bitcoin production in September, reducing its reserves by 923 BTC. The firm’s realized bitcoin mining hashrate has experienced moderate growth post-halving, maintaining a rate of approximately 7.1 EH/s.