NEW YORK, Jan. 6, 2026, 15:06 (EST) — Regular session
Shares of Cipher Mining Inc fell about 4% in afternoon trading on Tuesday after the bitcoin miner said it hired two industry veterans as it pushes further into artificial intelligence data centers and high-performance computing. The stock was down 3.9% at $17.46, with more than 20 million shares traded. Businessinsider
The hires land as investors scrutinize which bitcoin miners can turn access to power and land into steadier revenue streams beyond crypto, a business where cash flow can swing sharply with coin prices and network competition.
Cipher has been pitching itself as a developer of industrial-scale data centers, where the same electrical infrastructure that runs mining rigs can also host racks of servers for AI and other data-heavy work. High-performance computing, or HPC, is the industry shorthand for that kind of intensive processing.
Bitcoin was down about 2.3% at $92,259, a move that often hits listed miners because their revenue is tied to the coin’s price while many of their costs are fixed.
Cipher said Lee Bratcher will lead policy and government affairs, including work tied to ERCOT, Texas’ main power-grid operator, while Drew Armstrong will run strategic initiatives linked to the company’s expansion into HPC. “Adding experienced leaders … is critical,” Chief Executive Officer Tyler Page said in a statement. GlobeNewswire
Other U.S.-listed miners were mixed-to-lower on the day, with Marathon Digital down about 2.8% and CleanSpark off roughly 3.5%, while Riot Platforms was little changed.
A risk for investors is that the AI and HPC buildout can demand heavy upfront spending and long lead times before cash shows up, while the core mining business remains exposed to bitcoin swings, power-price spikes and tighter grid rules.
