SoftBank Invests $50 Million in Cipher Mining to Boost HPC Expansion

Texas Bitcoin mining firm Cipher Mining has secured a $50 million private placement from SoftBank Group as the investment giant aims to invest heavily in data center infrastructure.

Cipher said on Thursday that the funding, structured as a private investment in public equity (PIPE), positions SoftBank as a key investor in Cipher and underscores its growing interest in high-performance computing (HPC) and AI-driven data center development.

The investment comes as Cipher expands its footprint in industrial-scale infrastructure beyond Bitcoin mining, which is increasingly essential for powering AI workloads and other advanced computing applications. In 2024, Cipher announced the acquisition of several sites in Texas as part of its ambition to build up a power pipeline of 2.6 gigawatts across 11 locations.

SoftBank, known for its aggressive investments in emerging technologies, has been actively expanding its portfolio in AI and cloud computing infrastructure.

SoftBank has recently announced a significant investment in the data center infrastructure industry through the Stargate Project, which was unveiled just after U.S. President Donald Trump’s inauguration. It is a collaboration between SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle, and MGX, aiming to invest up to $500 billion over the next four years to build new AI infrastructure in the United States.

The project is said to commence with an immediate deployment of $100 billion, focusing on constructing data centers and associated infrastructure to support advanced AI development. In addition to this, SoftBank is reportedly in discussions to invest between $15 billion and $25 billion directly into OpenAI.