Cipher Digital has amended its Barber Lake data center arrangements in Colorado City, Texas, extending lease commitments to 20 years. The agreements, announced on September 25, amend AI cloud provider Fluidstack's existing lease and secure a binding commitment from an unnamed AI lab to enter into a separate ten-year lease once Fluidstack's term ends. Cipher expects the additional commitment to generate around $5.2bn, raising total contracted revenue at Barber Lake from $3.8bn to more than $9bn.
The second lease will have substantially similar economic terms to Fluidstack's agreement. Cipher expects to deliver individual data halls between Q4 2026 and Q1 2027, with rent starting as each hall is handed over. The company attributed the revised schedule to design changes and evolving tenant requirements. The amendment also sets out a cost-sharing arrangement: Cipher will absorb the first $359.3m of costs above the original budget, while the tenant will reimburse half of further overruns through additional rent over the combined 20-year period, calculated to provide Cipher with a contracted return.
CEO Tyler Page said 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 being built. Cipher's original deal with Fluidstack in September 2025 covered 168MW of critical IT load, and a November expansion added 39MW, bringing the combined critical IT load to 207MW. Cipher said the expanded agreement covered the entire 300MW of capacity at Barber Lake.
The announcement leaves several details unresolved. The unnamed AI lab is not identified, and the dossier does not specify the exact start date of its ten-year lease beyond the sequence following Fluidstack's term. Earlier disclosures targeted delivery of the initial 168MW phase by September 2026 and the additional 39MW phase by January 2027, but the revised schedule now points to Q4 2026 through Q1 2027. The source is a single secondary report, so independent confirmation of the figures and terms is not yet available.