Bitcoin miner Cipher Mining (CIFR) shares rose more than 18% in post-market trading after SoftBank said it would buy 10.4 million shares in the company, worth $50 million.
The mining company said the investment will support Cipher’s development of a high-performance computing (HPC) data center and establish SoftBank as a major investor in the company.
“SoftBank’s focus on innovation in technology and AI development aligns with our vision to establish ourselves as a leader in HPC data center development,” Tyler Page, Cipher’s CEO, said in a statement on Thursday.
The investment comes at a time when bitcoin miners are facing a margin squeeze from brutal competition in the industry after the recent Bitcoin Halving events slashed the mining rewards in half. Many miners have pivoted their resources towards hosting HPC and artificial intelligence (AI) computing needs to diversify their revenue from mining.
Read more: The Subtle Way AI Data Centers Boost Bitcoin Mining Economics
