How much is the deal worth?

Riot expects about $9.1 billion in revenue over the 20-year initial term, rising to as much as $16.1 billion if both five-year extension options are exercised.

When will the data center be fully operational?

Riot plans to deliver 96 megawatts by December 2027 and the full 191 megawatts by June 2028.

Why are bitcoin miners building AI data centers?

Depressed cryptocurrency mining margins and a shortage of grid-connected power have pushed miners like Riot and TeraWulf to repurpose their sites and power contracts for AI compute leases, echoing a broader trend of AI labs signing long-term deals with energy-rich infrastructure operators.

Riot Platforms Signs $9.1B AI Data Center Deal With Anthropic

Q: Is the AI lab renting Riot's data center confirmed to be Anthropic?

Not officially. Riot’s securities filing names only an unnamed “leading frontier AI lab.” Bloomberg and CNBC, citing people familiar with the matter, identified the tenant as Anthropic, but neither company has confirmed this publicly.

Riot Platforms, one of the largest publicly traded Bitcoin miners in the US, has agreed to lease 191 megawatts of data-center capacity to an unnamed “leading frontier AI lab” for roughly $9.1 billion over 20 years, the company disclosed in a securities filing on August 10.

Riot’s filing does not name the tenant. Bloomberg and CNBC, citing people familiar with the matter, reported that the customer is Anthropic, though neither company has confirmed this publicly.

The lease covers Riot’s Rockdale, Texas campus and runs through June 2048, with two optional five-year extensions that could push the total contract value to $16.1 billion. Riot said it expects to deliver the first 96 megawatts by December 2027 and the full 191 megawatts by June 2028, backed in part by a $573 million interim financing facility from Morgan Stanley.

From mining rigs to AI landlord

The deal is the clearest sign yet of Riot’s pivot from Bitcoin mining toward AI infrastructure. Combined with an existing lease to AMD, Riot now has 241 megawatts under contract, worth an estimated $9.8 billion in long-term revenue. CEO Jason Les called the agreement “a defining moment” in the company’s evolution into a large-scale data-center developer. Riot’s stock jumped roughly 25% in the hours after the filing became public.

Riot is one of several cryptocurrency miners racing to convert power-hungry mining sites into AI data centers as depressed crypto prices squeeze mining margins and AI labs scramble for grid capacity. TeraWulf struck a similar $19 billion lease with Anthropic earlier this year, and Anthropic has separately signed a $10 billion compute deal with the startup Volta as it races to lock down capacity across multiple providers.

Why Texas

Rockdale sits in territory overseen by grid operator ERCOT, which has faced pressure to ration new large-load connections as data-center demand strains the state’s power supply. Miners like Riot already hold grid interconnection rights and on-site power infrastructure built for mining, making them attractive partners for AI labs that need capacity faster than new power plants can be built.

From mining rigs to AI landlord

Why Texas

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