Canaan Inc. (CAN), maker of Bitcoin mining hardware and operator of crypto mining infrastructure, said it purchased a 49% stake in a joint venture related to several mining projects in West Texas from Cipher Mining (CIFR) for $39.75 million in stock.
The transaction covers Cipher’s interest in the ABC projects, which include Alborz LLC, Bear LLC and Chief Mountain LLC. The rest of the company is owned by WindHQ, according to a statement released Monday.
The purchase was financed by the issuance of 806.4 million shares of Class A common stock, equivalent to 53.8 million American depositary shares, and made Cipher, a U.S.-based Bitcoin mining company that develops and operates large-scale data centers, a major shareholder in Singapore-based Canaan. The shares are subject to a six-month retention period.
Canaan shares fell 6% on Monday, while Cipher shares rose 4%. Cipher is expected to report fourth-quarter results before the market opens on February 24.
The sites collectively operate 120 megawatts of live power capacity and support approximately 4.4 exahashes per second (EH/s) of hashrate. Fleet efficiency amounts to approximately 25.7 joules per terahash (J/TH).
As part of the deal, Canaan also purchased 6,840 Avalon A15Pro mining rigs that were previously deployed at Cipher’s Black Pearl facility, which is being converted into an AI and high-performance computing data center.
