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Canaan has acquired Cipher Mining’s interest in a set of operational bitcoin mining projects in West Texas, expanding its access to power and hashrate in a deal worth about $39.75 million. The transaction gives Canaan a 49% stake in the ABC projects and adds Cipher as a significant shareholder through a stock-based structure.
The move is part of Canaan’s broader U.S. energy strategy, as the company shifts toward owning and developing more upstream power infrastructure tied to mining and AI/HPC workloads.
Canaan takes Cipher’s stake in three Texas mining entities
According to the PRNewswire release, Canaan acquired Cipher Mining’s 49% equity interest in the joint venture covering Alborz LLC, Bear LLC, and Chief Mountain LLC (the “ABC Projects”). After the deal, Canaan holds a 49% stake while WindHQ keeps the remaining 51%.
The sites are already operational, with a combined 120 MW of power capacity and about 4.4 EH/s of operating hashrate. Canaan also said current fleet efficiency is around 25.7 J/TH, with room for hardware and infrastructure upgrades.
The deal also includes 6,840 Avalon miners
As part of the transaction, Canaan said it also purchased 6,840 Avalon A15Pro-AVG-221T mining rigs from Cipher. The company noted these rigs were originally sold to Cipher in July 2025 and energized at Cipher’s Black Pearl site.
Canaan added that Black Pearl is now being converted into an AI-HPC data center, which gives more context to why Cipher is rotating out of part of these mining assets while taking an equity position in Canaan. That framing comes directly from management comments in the release.
A stock-funded transaction that brings Cipher onto the cap table
Canaan said total consideration is approximately $39.75 million. Instead of cash, the company funded the transaction by issuing 806,439,900 Class A ordinary shares to Cipher, equivalent to 53,762,660 ADS, priced at $0.7394 per ADS. The shares are subject to a six-month lock-up.
The companies also emphasized the strategic relationship angle. Canaan described Cipher as a significant shareholder after the transaction, while Cipher said it took a “meaningful equity position” based on its confidence in Canaan’s ability to scale.
Low-cost Texas power and ERCOT flexibility are central to the strategy
Canaan highlighted the ABC projects’ power economics as a key reason for the acquisition, pointing to sub-3 cent/kWh average power rates in West Texas. The company said the projects combine competitive long-term grid rates at Bear and Chief with off-grid wind integration at Alborz.
The release also says the sites are active in demand response and energy arbitrage within ERCOT, which Canaan framed as part of a broader strategy to build flexible power-linked infrastructure as data center demand rises.
Canaan ties the deal to a bigger U.S. energy buildout
Beyond the asset purchase, Canaan used the announcement to outline a wider strategy shift: moving from an “asset-light” power approach to a more systematic upstream development model focused on direct U.S. power applications. The company said it is aiming to build a project pipeline capable of securing substantial load by the end of 2026, potentially at gigawatt scale.
Canaan also said it plans to combine bitcoin mining with AI-HPC colocation in order to improve capital efficiency and deepen relationships with power partners. That makes this deal more than a hashrate acquisition — it is part of a broader infrastructure positioning play in North America.
Why it matters for crypto
- This is a live example of miners repositioning around power access, not just machine count or short-term hash growth.
- Sub-3 cent/kWh power in ERCOT-linked projects can materially improve mining economics if uptime and curtailment strategies hold.
- Cipher’s shift toward AI/HPC and Canaan’s push into power infrastructure reflects the growing overlap between mining and data center strategies.
- Stock-funded M&A shows how mining firms are using equity to preserve cash while still expanding footprint.
- The deal reinforces Texas as a core battleground for mining, energy arbitrage, and grid-flexible compute infrastructure.
What to watch next
- Whether Canaan upgrades hardware or infrastructure at the ABC projects to improve the current ~25.7 J/TH fleet efficiency.
- How quickly the 6,840 acquired Avalon rigs are redeployed or integrated into Canaan’s operating footprint.
- Further details on Canaan’s U.S. upstream energy pipeline and whether it discloses specific projects in 2026.
- Signs of additional mining-to-AI/HPC asset rotations by other public miners following Cipher’s Black Pearl conversion.
- Any updates on project-level financing structures as Canaan executes its expansion strategy.
Source: Canaan Inc. Press Release