NEW YORK, May 27, 2026, 16:01 EDT
Cipher Digital Inc. stock climbed roughly 9.5% to $25.21 late Wednesday on Nasdaq, closing in on a new 52-week high. The run came as traders stuck with names linked to power-hungry AI data centers. Volume beat the daily average, pushing Cipher’s market cap to nearly $10.2 billion.
Cipher is starting to trade more like a high-performance computing data center play than a straight bitcoin miner. Investors have noticed since the company switched its name from Cipher Mining Inc. to Cipher Digital Inc. in February, though it kept its CIFR ticker on Nasdaq.
The move is hitting a market that’s still paying up for AI infrastructure, though Wednesday’s broader rally paused. Reuters said the S&P 500 and Nasdaq barely moved as investors took a breather after the AI rally, but both stayed close to records. “After such a large run-up,” said Sean Clark, chief investment officer at Clark Capital Management Group, “there is a little bit of a pause.” Reuters
Cipher’s latest update, out May 5, is still the key driver. The company reported its Barber Lake and Black Pearl data centers are moving forward, and it announced a third AI data-center campus lease with an investment-grade hyperscale tenant, described as a large cloud-computing customer. Cipher also locked in a $200 million revolving credit facility.
CEO Tyler Page called 2026 “the year of execution for Cipher” in the latest update, pointing to Barber Lake, Black Pearl and a new lease win. Cipher Digital Inc.
The stock moved up while other names in the broad power-and-AI group also gained. TeraWulf added around 5.3%, Hut 8 rose about 5.0%, and Riot Platforms was up 2.8%. Bitcoin, though, fell by roughly 1.3%. That points to Wednesday’s move not being just about crypto prices.
Jefferies this month put Cipher, Hut 8, Riot and TeraWulf into the category of miners turning bitcoin-mining power into AI data center capacity—a theme that has become a main focus for sector re-rating, according to Seeking Alpha.
Cipher said in its May presentation that it has 700 megawatts of contracted gross HPC capacity, with about $11.4 billion in contracted revenue and base lease terms of 10 to 15 years. A megawatt is a unit of power capacity. In this part of the market, big chunks of power are starting to look like a scarce asset.
Execution is still key for the trade. Cipher posted first-quarter revenue of $34.8 million, down from $49.0 million the year before. Net loss widened to $114.3 million. Adjusted EBITDA, which cuts out interest, taxes, depreciation and some other items, came in at negative $48.2 million, the company said.
Debt is in focus. In the May presentation, the company put total debt at around $5.2 billion at March 31. Net debt, after cash, restricted cash and cash equivalents, came in at $960 million. Construction slowdowns, rising costs, tenants scaling back or another drop in AI-infrastructure sentiment could pressure the bull case fast.
Investors for now are focused on Cipher’s powered land, leases and construction pipeline. “Technology leadership remains difficult to ignore,” Adam Turnquist, chief technical strategist at LPL Financial, told Reuters, but he said that stretched momentum is starting to raise questions about how long the advance can last. Reuters
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