Cipher Digital reports AI lab commitment to enter later Barber Lake lease
An unnamed AI lab committed to enter a separate ten-year Barber Lake lease after Fluidstack's term; first rent commencement is expected in the fourth quarter of 2026.
Julian Okafor
An unfinished Texas data centre has a binding commitment for a second ten-year lease before its first hall is delivered. Cipher Digital Inc. NASDAQCIFR, a New York developer and operator of industrial data centres, said in a Sept. 25, 2026 release that an unnamed AI lab committed to enter a separate ten-year lease after Fluidstack's initial term. Cipher expects about US$5.2 billion in incremental contracted revenue from that later lease, bringing its Barber Lake estimate for both decades to more than US$9 billion.
The NASDAQCIFR quote showed Cipher shares at US$17.73 at the 4 p.m. EDT Nasdaq close on Sept. 25, 2026. Cipher placed the original term at about US$3.8 billion of contracted revenue in its release, a projection covering ten years.
The Form 8-K describing the Sept. 24 agreements says a Cipher subsidiary amended its existing lease with Fluidstack USA II Inc. and concurrently entered into a binding commitment with the lab to enter a later lease. The filing does not identify the lab; it says the future lease will contain economic terms substantially consistent with Fluidstack's.
Cipher's Sept. 25, 2026 release expects individual data halls to be delivered from the fourth quarter of 2026 through the first quarter of 2027 after tenant design changes. Rent will commence for each hall on delivery, with the first rent commencement expected in the fourth quarter of 2026. The more than US$9 billion is expected contracted revenue across two decades, rather than sales already earned.
Fluidstack Leases Barber Lake's 300 Megawatts
In a Nov. 20, 2025 announcement, Cipher said Fluidstack would lease all 300 megawatts of Barber Lake's gross capacity. The expansion added 39 megawatts of critical IT load, supported by up to 56 megawatts of additional gross capacity. Cipher valued that transaction at about US$830 million over the initial ten years, bringing contracted revenue across its Fluidstack partnership to roughly US$3.8 billion for that term.
Cipher's Sept. 24 filing changes the hall delivery schedule but gives no revised capacity figure for Barber Lake. The November 2025 release describes 300 megawatts as the entire capacity leased at the site; the 39 megawatts is the critical IT load from the additional transaction.
The 2025 release also estimated approximately US$9 billion of total value across the Fluidstack partnership if all extension options were exercised. That figure depended on the options. Cipher's Sept. 24, 2026 filing instead describes a binding AI lab commitment to enter a separate later lease, while the new estimate of more than US$9 billion concerns Barber Lake.
“Extending Barber Lake’s contracted life from 10 to 20 years and adding approximately $5.2 billion of contracted revenue reflects the enduring value of the infrastructure we're building,” Cipher chief executive Tyler Page said in the Sept. 25, 2026 release.
Under the cost framework in Cipher's Sept. 24, 2026 Form 8-K, the company bears the first US$359.3 million of spending above the original lease budget. For costs above that threshold, the tenant will reimburse half over the aggregate twenty-year term through additional rent calculated to give Cipher a contracted return. The filing gives no revised total construction budget, so the amount of any reimbursement remains unspecified.
Cipher's 8-K lists counterparty performance, construction delays and access to financing among the risks to its projections. The revised hall schedule determines when rent is expected to commence, while the AI lab's ten-year term follows Fluidstack's initial lease.
Akamai And Bitdeer Face Later Service Starts
Akamai Technologies, Inc. NASDAQAKAM, a Massachusetts cloud and security supplier, said in its Form 8-K covering Sept. 18, 2026 agreements that two cloud-computing project plans carried an approximately US$11.6 billion customer commitment, subject to delivery and service availability. Each plan has an initial seven-year term starting on its own service start date. Mugglehead's Sept. 25, 2026 report on the Anthropic agreement covered Akamai's planned buildout before service begins.
Read more: Akamai signs US$11.6B Anthropic cloud deal with US$5.5B buildout
Bitdeer Technologies Group NASDAQBTDR, a Singapore bitcoin miner and AI-cloud developer, said in its August 2026 operations update that its Malaysian A102 AI site was fully contracted ahead of a November 2026 service target. Bitdeer expected revenue recognition to begin in the first quarter of 2027. Mugglehead's Sept. 26 report on Bitdeer's tally through Sept. 25 also recorded bitcoin production and sales while the service start remained ahead.
Read more: Bitdeer Technologies Group sells 288.4 BTC, has zero pure holdings
Cipher's next dated test is the first Barber Lake hall's delivery and rent commencement in the fourth quarter of 2026. The revised schedule calls for the remaining halls to be delivered through the first quarter of 2027.
