Linking RCM Technologies to a Multibillion-Dollar Hyperscale Buildout
Newly uncovered evidence shows RCM Technologies, Inc. (RCMT) is providing engineering services to Cipher Digital Inc. (CIFR), likely under a multiyear preferred partner agreement. Backed by hyperscale agreements with Amazon, Google, and Fluidstack, Cipher’s 3.4 GW contracted and pipeline capacity translates into more than $20 billion in data center construction spend.
Disclaimer: I, along with my affiliates, am long $RCMT at the time of publication and we may change our positions at any time. Affiliates and paid subscribers received early access to this report and were notified in advance. See full disclosures below.
To capitalize on hyperscale infrastructure demand, RCM is deemphasizing its legacy staffing business.
The company’s Engineering segment, and specifically its Energy Services vertical, is seeing accelerating demand for data center development, entering fiscal 2026 with record backlog. As of the latest available disclosure in the third quarter, the Energy Services backlog exceeded $70 million, up from just $21 million a year ago.1
Management first introduced the data center opportunity in March 2025, describing it as a “rapidly emerging driver of growth for RCM.”2 Two quarters later, when asked about the company’s multiyear preferred partner agreements for data center infrastructure and grid modernization, management expanded:
“I think the surge in spend... is pretty overwhelming. I mean it’s historic without a question. And it’s really hard to find an argument that we’re anything but in the early innings of it… I think that we’re facing a protracted secular bull market.”3
However, during the third quarter conference call, management attempted to temper near-term expectations. They characterized the data center activity as “really kind of incremental to us,” while describing the utility market as the company’s “stronghold.”4
RCM’s unusual decision not to hold a fourth-quarter earnings call has effectively kept the true magnitude of its data center pipeline out of public view. With no further disclosures, who exactly is on the other side of the company’s multiyear preferred partner agreements?
THE UNDISCLOSED INFRASTRUCTURE PARTNER
RCM is currently on a hiring spree for an unnamed “industrial-scale data center construction and operations” client.
In almost all of these listings, RCM uses highly specific, identical phrasing to describe its undisclosed partner:
“Our client is an industrial-scale data center construction and operations company. They allocate data center opportunities between bitcoin mining and other high performance computing services, such as AI. They continue to develop their pipeline of power capacity at high-quality data center sites, either for bitcoin mining or HPC.”
The description varies only slightly in select postings, with one specific listing characterizing the client as a “U.S.-based leader in large-scale data center development” that is “headquartered in New York, with locations throughout the U.S.”
A cross-examination of active job listings, corporate language, and recent SEC filings confirms this undisclosed partner is Cipher.
First, Cipher’s own job postings use language that mirrors RCM’s unbranded listings word-for-word:
“We are an industrial-scale data center construction and operations company. We allocate data center opportunities between bitcoin mining and other high performance computing services, such as AI. We continue to develop our pipeline of power capacity at high quality data center sites, either for bitcoin mining or HPC.”
While this verbatim language overlap all but confirms a partnership, the geographic distribution of RCM’s hiring removes any remaining doubt. All of RCM’s data center-related listings target positions based in Denver, CO, Charleston, SC, Colorado City, TX, and New York, NY.
This hiring perfectly maps onto Cipher’s physical footprint. According to Cipher’s latest annual report, the geographic alignment is exact:5
“The Company leases office space for its headquarters in New York, New York, and office space in Charleston, South Carolina, and Denver, Colorado… We lease land for data center facilities in West Texas, and own land options in Texas and Ohio for additional sites.”
In short, by triangulating the identical project descriptions with matching geographic footprints, the data conclusively points to Cipher partnering with RCM to outsource engineering and staffing requirements for its data center buildout.
THE MEGA-CAP HYPERSCALER TENANTS
Cipher is shifting its core business from bitcoin mining to developing and leasing high-performance computing (HPC) data center campuses for the “world’s top hyperscalers.”6 To reflect this transition, the company rebranded from Cipher Mining to Cipher Digital and started divesting its legacy mining assets.7 8
Since pivoting to HPC data center development, Cipher has signed three industrial-scale lease agreements with hyperscale tenants while retaining 100% ownership of the underlying projects.
Fluidstack & Google (300 MW | Barber Lake, TX): Cipher executed an initial 10-year colocation agreement with Fluidstack in September 2025 and subsequently expanded it in late November. The finalized deal commits the entire 300 MW of capacity at Cipher’s Barber Lake site, targeting the delivery of 168 MW of critical IT load by September 2026 and an additional 39 MW by January 2027. The agreement guarantees approximately $3.8 billion in initial contracted revenue, with extension options pushing the total potential contract to $9.0 billion. Google is providing a combined $1.7 billion backstop on Fluidstack’s lease obligations to support project-level debt financing.9 10
Amazon Web Services (300 MW | Black Pearl, TX): A month after the initial Fluidstack deal, Cipher announced a “surprising” 15-year, $5.5 billion lease agreement with AWS. Cipher will deliver the entire 300 MW capacity at its Black Pearl site in two phases beginning in July 2026. The final delivery is targeted for the fourth quarter of 2026, with rent commencing in August 2026.11
Undisclosed Tenant (New Campus): In March 2026, Cipher executed its third data center lease with an undisclosed tenant, speculated to be either Meta or Microsoft.12 Under the terms of the 15-year agreement, Cipher will develop and deliver a new HPC data center at one of its existing sites.13 This location is believed to be the 100 MW Stingray campus after Cipher CEO Tyler Page said during the last earnings call, referring to the site, that they were “increasingly confident in securing a lease in the near term, having now identified a preferred partner with whom [they] are in advanced lease negotiations,” expecting “the most favorable [lease economics they] have achieved to date.”14
With the first two leases alone, Cipher has secured 600 MW of gross contracted HPC capacity and “is now fully focused on the construction and delivery of Barber Lake and Black Pearl, both of which remain on schedule.”15
Yet, as management said following the initial signing: “We believe this transaction represents the first of several in the HPC space.”16
THE 3.4 GW DEVELOPMENT PIPELINE
Beyond the contracted catalysts at Barber Lake (acquired in September 2024)17 and Black Pearl (acquired in December 2023),18 Cipher has acquired, or secured the rights to, seven additional data center facilities. Upon full energization, the company’s cumulative pipeline and contracted capacity will exceed 3.4 GW.
Reveille (70 MW | Cotulla, Texas): Acquired in October 2024, this site includes approvals for an initial 70 MW with the potential to expand up to 200 MW. Energization is targeted for 2027.19
Stingray (100 MW | Andrews, Texas): Acquired in February 2025, this site is fully de-risked with all necessary regulatory approvals and a signed facility extension agreement for up to 100 MW. Power availability is anticipated in the first half of 2026.20 21
Colchis (1.0 GW | West Texas): In October 2025, Cipher secured a 95% equity ownership of this 1 GW site, targeting energization in 2028.22 23
Ulysses (200 MW | Ohio): Acquired in December 2025, this is the company’s first site outside of Texas. The facility remains on track to energize in the fourth quarter of 2027.24
The 1.5 GW Texas Portfolio: Cipher is executing on a trio of 500 MW sites originally optioned in October 2024.25 The company recently exercised its options to acquire the special purpose entity holding the underlying purchase rights to these properties. Combined, these three campuses will add a cumulative 1.5 GW to the pipeline:
Milsing (500 MW | East Texas): Option exercised in December 2025. Estimated energization between 2028 and 2029.
Mikeska (500 MW | West Texas): Option exercised in February 2026. Estimated energization in 2028.
McLennan (500 MW | Central Texas): Option exercised in February 2026. Estimated energization in 2028. The company is currently in the process of exercising its final option to purchase the physical site.26
In short, the company has been on a buying spree since December 2023, with the addition of its latest site bringing Cipher’s pipeline and contracted capacity to a total of more than 3.4 GW across nine sites.
At the Needham Growth Conference in January 2026, the company confirmed it is currently marketing 370 MW of capacity for its Ulysses, Stingray, and Reveille sites, adding that “multiple hyperscalers are interested in several of our sites.”27
It is worth noting that following the February 2026 sale of its stake in the Alborz, Bear, and Chief joint ventures, the Odessa facility is now the company's only active bitcoin mining operation.28
THE $22.7 BILLION DATA CENTER BUILDOUT
Industry benchmarks commonly place Tier III data center development costs at roughly $8 million to $12 million per MW of IT load,29 though AI-optimized facilities can reach as high as $20 million or more due to advanced liquid cooling requirements and higher power densities.30
As Peter Sacco, founder and CEO of PTS Data Center Solutions, said: “If you’re [building] a hyperscale data center, you’re building in the range of about $10 million to $12 million per megawatt.”31
For Cipher, this range has been explicitly quantified. The company previously disclosed estimated project costs of $9 million to $11 million per MW of critical IT load for its Barber Lake site, later refining that figure to $9 million to $10 million under the upsized agreement.
The 300 MW Barber Lake site carries 207 MW of critical IT load. Based on guided metrics, development costs for this single project range from $1.8 billion to $2.1 billion. As Page recently put it, Barber Lake costs the equivalent of a “brand new giant Manhattan skyscraper.”32
The site is located in Colorado City, Texas. RCM is currently hiring for a role based in that exact location, confirming the company is already involved in the site’s development.33
Yet, Barber Lake accounts for less than 10% of Cipher’s total contracted and pipeline capacity. Extrapolating these figures to its entire portfolio translates to an aggregate pipeline buildout cost of $21.5 billion to $23.9 billion. In Page’s words, “imagine if you were building like three Manhattan skyscrapers simultaneously.”
The question now is exactly where RCM fits into this multibillion-dollar data center buildout. Commentary from the third quarter provided the answer:34
“We see opportunities to get more involved on the data center front selectively… the most obvious opportunity is the interconnect aspect of it because the reality is each of these major data centers requires substations to be built, and that’s obviously directly in our wheelhouse.
…even just adding 1 or 2 incremental core clients a year, it can really move the needle… historically, [utility] capex spend might have been $2 billion or $3 billion. Now it’s at maybe $5 billion or $6 billion. And then some of them are moving up another level to… $8 billion to $10 billion a year. And the lion’s share of that is going towards hardening the grid.
So it’s an exciting time for sure.”
Considering the first incremental core client has already been landed, that “exciting time” is now underway. And the pipeline from this single client alone equates to nine “brand new giant Manhattan skyscrapers.”
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