Google Backs Bitcoin Miners' Pivot to AI: A $3 Billion Deal Reshapes Tech Landscape

Google backs $3 billion deal with Bitcoin miner as Big Tech looks to crypto for compute | Fortune Crypto

Cipher Mining struck the deal with Fluidstack, an AI computing startup based in the U.K. Google has agreed to backstop $1.4 billion in the startup's lease obligations, and, in return, receive 5.4% in equity in Cipher Mining. "We believe this transaction represents the first of several in the HPC space," Tyler Page, CEO of Cipher Miner, said in a statement, referring to high-performance computing, an industry term that generally refers to AI. Under the deal, Cipher Mining will repurpose its Bitcoin mining data center in Texas for AI services -- and potentially expand its existing campus to accommodate increased demand. This isn't the first deal Google has helped broker a deal with a Bitcoin miner. In August, TeraWulf announced that it had struck a $3.7 billion deal to lease out a data center it owns in western New York to Fluidstack. Google agreed to backstop $1.8 billion of the deal and received 8% in TeraWulf equity. Google's tie-ups with Cipher Mining and TeraWulf come as AI developers look to amass more and more computing power to stay competitive in an industry arms race. On Monday, OpenAI announced a plan with the chip developer Nvidia to build AI data centers that would consume as much electricity as the entirety of New York City and San Diego combined. But AI giants like OpenAI or Google aren't just tapping established chipmakers. They're also looking for help from Bitcoin miners. Bitcoin mining refers to the act of solving complex mathematical puzzles to process transactions between holders of the cryptocurrency as well as introduce new Bitcoins into circulation. The largest Bitcoin miners own fleets of specialized computers in large data warehouses to compete for new tranches of the cryptocurrency. While AI data warehouses have different servers and require different networks, the similarities between mining Bitcoin and powering AI haven't been lost on crypto companies. CoreWeave, for example, pivoted from mining the cryptocurrency Ethereum to building out AI data warehouses. Its customers include OpenAI, Google, Cloudflare, and a suite of Big Tech firms. The company went public in March and is worth about $65 billion, as of Thursday afternoon. Other Bitcoin miners have tried to replicate CoreWeave's pivot, including Core Scientific, which CoreWeave agreed to acquire in July for $9 billion. Core Scientific shareholders have since pushed back on the deal, arguing that the purchase price undervalues the Bitcoin miner.

Cipher Stock Rises as Bitcoin Miner Boosts Debt Offering to $1.1 Billion Following Google Deal

Bitcoin miners are increasingly delving into the world of AI computing, as both require immense computing power. Bitcoin miner Cipher Mining on Friday announced it had upped the price of its convertible debt offering, one day after revealing a $3 billion AI cloud hosting deal backstopped by Google. The Nasdaq-listed miner said its convertible senior notes were now priced at $1.1 billion after initially being offered for $800 million. The notes will be for "persons reasonably believed to be qualified institutional buyers," and will be due in 2031. Senior notes are a form of debt a company can issue to investors. Convertible notes can be turned into company equity by the buyer. Cipher's stock (CIFR) was trading up by nearly 5% on Friday at a price around $12.20 a share, after falling sharply on Thursday following an initial spike at the start of the trading. CIFR has nearly pulled even on the week after being significantly down earlier in the day. The company on Thursday announced that it signed a 10-year, roughly $3 billion high-performance computing colocation agreement with Fluidstack. The deal will see Cipher deliver 168 MW of critical IT load, supported by a maximum of 244 MW of gross capacity, at its Barber Lake site in Colorado City, Texas. As part of the deal, Google said it would backstop $1.4 billion of Fluidstack's lease obligations to support project-related debt financing. In return, the tech giant will receive warrants to acquire approximately 24 million shares of Cipher common stock, or a 5.4% pro forma equity ownership stake. In the Bitcoin mining world, companies use warehouses full of computers to process transactions on the crypto network. Because they've amassed so much computing power, some miners have pivoted their infrastructure to address growing AI demand. Experts previously told Decrypt that while both industries use data centers, it can be difficult to make the swing from AI to crypto mining. Bitcoin miner TeraWulf announced in August that Google was providing an incremental $1.4 billion backstop to support project-related debt financing, upping its total stake to $3.2 billion.

Bitcoin miner TeraWulf to raise $3B for Google-backed data center: Report

TeraWulf is reportedly planning $3 billion in funding through Morgan Stanley with Google's backstop as the mining firm pivots to AI. Crypto mining company TeraWulf is reportedly raising approximately $3 billion through Morgan Stanley to build data centers, with tech giant Google providing support. The TeraWulf funding round will support the build-out of its data centers with a structure supported by Google, according to company finance chief Patrick Fleury, who spoke to Bloomberg on Thursday. Deal could launch as soon as October in high-yield bond or leveraged loan markets. Google's backstop commitment to support the debt financing is an additional $1.4 billion, bringing its total to $3.2 billion. The Google support could give the Morgan Stanley transaction a higher rating from credit rating firms. However, the terms of the transaction are still under negotiation, and there is no guarantee a deal will launch, Bloomberg said. The AI boom has created severe shortages of data center space, GPU chips, and reliable electricity access, and large crypto mining companies are well-positioned because they already possess the two scarcest resources, existing data center infrastructure and secured power capacity. In August, TeraWulf announced a ten-year colocation lease agreement with Fluidstack, an AI infrastructure provider. Google has now committed $3.2 billion across both deals, showing serious long-term investment in crypto-to-AI infrastructure conversion. Cointelegraph reached out to Terawulf for further details, but did not receive an immediate response. TeraWulf stock (WULF) spiked 12% on Thursday, hitting an intraday high of $11.72 before it retreated to end up down 3.7% on the day at $10.97 in after-hours trading, according to Google Finance. Company shares surged after the initial announcement in August, jumping 80% in the days that followed. TeraWulf has had a solid year with share prices up 94% since the beginning of 2025. Cipher Mining announced a very similar agreement on Thursday, partnering with the same AI cloud firm Fluidstack and being backed by Google, which took a 5.4% stake in the company. Cipher will provide data-center capacity for Fluidstack under a colocation agreement, while Google will obtain an equity stake in Cipher and backstop $1.4 billion of the obligations.

Google Just Made Cipher Mining An AI-Crypto Hybrid Bet - Cipher Mining (NASDAQ:CIFR)

Cipher Mining Inc (NASDAQ: CIFR) just landed one of the most eye-catching endorsements in crypto infrastructure: Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOGL) (NASDAQ: GOOG). Google took a 5.4% stake in the Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) miner, securing roughly 24 million warrants as part of a 10-year, $5 billion AI hosting deal. Track CIFR stock here. The structure effectively backstops $1.4 billion in financing tied to Cipher's Texas data center buildout. For investors, that transforms Cipher from a niche miner into a leveraged bet on the AI-crypto convergence. Read Also: Cipher Mining (CIFR) Stock Hit 52-Week Highs Today: What's Going On? AI Meets Bitcoin: The Stargate Factor The timing couldn't be better. OpenAI, SoftBank and partners just unveiled a $400 billion Stargate data center initiative spanning nearly 7 GW, with two of its newest Texas sites landing right next to existing mining hubs. Shackelford County sits near IREN Ltd's (NASDAQ: IREN) 2 GW Sweetwater facility, while Milam County neighbors Riot Platforms Inc's (NASDAQ: RIOT) 700 MW Rockdale complex. SoftBank already owns ~2.65% of Cipher, tying another thread between AI buildouts and crypto infrastructure. This geographic clustering matters. Texas offers cheap power, a deregulated grid and a political climate welcoming to both AI and crypto. The overlap could create operational synergies and capital flow tailwinds for miners like Riot, IREN and Cipher as investors begin to view them less as pure bitcoin proxies and more as energy-intensive infrastructure players. Cipher's New Profile What sets Cipher apart now is credibility. Google's equity exposure isn't just financial -- it's a vote of confidence Cipher can deliver reliable hosting capacity at scale. That separates it from peers, giving the company access to long-duration capital while positioning it as a dual-track play: Bitcoin upside on one side, AI infrastructure on the other. For a stock that's often traded in lockstep with Bitcoin price swings, this marks a potential rerating catalyst. Investor Takeaway Cipher Mining is no longer just a high-beta Bitcoin miner -- it's a call option on AI infrastructure growth in Texas. With Google and SoftBank on the cap table, and Stargate bringing massive data centers into the same energy ecosystem, the stock sits squarely at the intersection of two of the market's hottest narratives. Investors betting on Cipher Mining aren't just buying crypto exposure -- they're buying into the AI-energy land grab. Read Next: Google Supports Cipher Mining's $3 Billion Data Center Pact As Company Launches $800 Million Convertible Notes Offering Photo: Shutterstock CIFRCipher Mining Inc$11.62-17.9%Overview$BTCBitcoin - United States dollar$109634.40-3.28%GOOGAlphabet Inc$245.54-0.92%GOOGLAlphabet Inc$244.68-1.00%IRENIREN Ltd$45.41-3.68%RIOTRiot Platforms Inc$16.54-8.09%Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs