Cipher Enters PJM With 200 MW Ohio Site Aimed at HPC Workloads
Cipher has acquired a 200-megawatt power site in Ohio, marking the bitcoin miner’s first expansion outside of Texas as part of its focus on high-performance computing (HPC) and data center expansion.
Cipher said on Tuesday that the site, known as Ulysses, includes 195 acres of land and secured power capacity from AEP Ohio. The company noted that all required utility agreements are already in place and that the site is expected to be energized in the fourth quarter of 2027.
Once online, the facility would give Cipher direct access to PJM, the largest wholesale electricity market in the United States. Cipher said the site’s size, fiber availability, and proximity to a major metropolitan area make it suitable for HPC workloads, in addition to traditional bitcoin mining.
The acquisition comes as PJM faces growing pressure to clarify how it handles large loads, including data centers tied to artificial intelligence. Federal regulators have recently ordered the grid operator to provide more transparency around its rules for evaluating and approving interconnection and service requests from large power users, a process that could affect timelines and costs for new AI-oriented projects in the region.
Cipher’s move into PJM also contrasts with mounting congestion in Texas, where most of its existing assets are located. As noted in a recent Miner Weekly issue, ERCOT has received an unprecedented surge of large-load interconnection requests this year, with data centers accounting for a significant share of the proposed capacity. The influx has intensified competition for power and transmission access in Texas, pushing miners and data center developers to look beyond the region for new growth.
Several publicly listed bitcoin miners are increasingly repositioning their power-intensive infrastructure to serve AI and cloud-compute customers, particularly in regions with deeper wholesale markets and more established transmission networks.
The company did not disclose the purchase price or whether the site will initially be developed for bitcoin mining, HPC workloads, or a hybrid configuration.
