THE MINING POD: Cipher’s Amazon Deal, IREN’s Microsoft Deal, Q3 Earnings Recap, and is China Winning the AI Race?

Nov 7, 2025

This week, two massive deals make waves in the AI and bitcoin mining sectors. Cipher Mining secures a stunning $5.5B, 15-year lease with Amazon for a 300MW facility, while IREN lands a $9.7B deal with Microsoft for 200MW. Bitcoin miners face hash price pressures, with values crashing to $40 per petahash and a significant price retracement. The hosts also debate if China is poised to win the AI race, referencing Nvidia's CEO's bold claims, and unpack a lawsuit involving transformer failures and OpenAI.

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INSIGHT

Hash Price Squeeze Amid AI Hype

Hash price has plunged to about $40 per PH/s/day as difficulty rose and BTC price retraced to ~$101K.
Rising hash rate and weak fees pressure mining economics despite the AI headlines.

INSIGHT

Cipher’s Big AWS Win

Cipher signed a $5.5B, 15-year AWS lease for ~300MW at Bear Lake and plans a 1GW Colchis site it will mostly finance.
The deal validates miners as hyperscaler partners and fuels major data-center expansion starting mid-2026.

INSIGHT

Microsoft Validates Miner Power Model

IREN signed a $9.7B, five-year Microsoft agreement to deliver 200MW in Texas with Dell supplying many components.
The deal validates the power-infrastructure model where miners supply power and space while hyperscalers manage compute.

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IREN and Cipher both announced deals with hyperscalers this week as the AI race heats up among bitcoin miners.

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Welcome back to The Mining Pod! Today, Colin and Matt talk about two massive hyperscaler deals that have upped the expectations for AI-pivots. Cipher Mining just secured a $5.5B, 15-year lease with Amazon Web Services for 300MW at their Bear Lake facility, while IREN signed a $9.7B, 5-year deal with Microsoft for 200MW in Texas. We also cover highlights from public miner Q3 earnings that have trickled through so far, a bitcoin miner lawsuit that involves OpenAI, and why Warren Buffett's Pacific Power’s loss with Amazon is a win for bitcoin miners. Plus: Will China win the AI race? Nvidia’s CEO thinks yes.

Notes:

• Cipher signs $5.5B AWS deal for 300MW facility

• IREN inks $9.7B Microsoft cloud compute agreement

• Hash price crashes to $40 per petahash per day

• Bitcoin retraced from $126K to $101K support

• Cipher announces 1GW data center JV project

• Pacific Power fails to deliver Amazon capacity

Timestamps:

00:00 Start

02:00 Difficulty Report by Luxor

05:05 Cipher Amazon deal

08:02 IREN Microsoft deal

13:56 Cleanspark Ad

14:25 Q3 earnings update

14:38 RIOT

14:54 MARA

15:34 HUT 8

16:08 CIPHER

18:23 CORZ workers comp lawsuit

21:08 China winning AI race?

26:31 Cry Corner: Buffett can’t MW

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