Bitcoin miner Riot Platforms has executed a 20-year data center lease with Anthropic for 191 megawatts of critical IT capacity at its Rockdale, Texas campus, a deal expected to generate approximately $9.1 billion in contract revenue over its initial term — and up to roughly $16.1 billion if two five-year extension options are fully exercised, the company disclosed Monday in its second-quarter results and 8-K filing. CNBC, citing David Faber, confirmed the tenant is Anthropic, and Bloomberg corroborated the report.
From Bitcoin Mining to AI Landlord
The lease, running through June 2048, covers a build-to-suit Tier 3 data center with the first 96 IT megawatts delivered in December 2027 and full deployment by June 2028. Riot has secured $573 million in interim financing from Morgan Stanley and will use proceeds from bitcoin sales as primary funding for construction. With its earlier AMD agreement, Riot now has 241 megawatts of contracted capacity representing about $9.8 billion of long-term contracted revenue — transforming the company from a pure-play bitcoin miner into a contracted AI data center developer.
"Today's announcement of a landmark 20-year, 191-megawatt data center lease with a leading frontier AI lab marks a defining moment in our evolution," CEO Jason Les said. Shares initially soared more than 20 percent before giving back most of the gain as investors digested the multi-year delivery timeline.
The Mining-to-AI Revaluation
The deal is the clearest signal yet of a broader shift: publicly traded bitcoin miners are increasingly valued as owners of scarce, grid-connected power infrastructure rather than producers of bitcoin. "Miners are discovering that assets secured during the crypto boom carry a second, potentially more lucrative life as the backbone of AI compute," analysts at Compass Point wrote, noting Riot now operates a "two-tenant campus carrying $9.8 billion of contracted data center revenue." Riot also reported second-quarter revenue of $174.2 million, up 14 percent year over year, and said it is in advanced discussions on a full-site lease for a second campus in Corsicana, Texas.
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