Riot Secures $9.1B Deal for AI Data Centres in Texas

Riot Platforms has secured a massive deal to lease its Rockdale, Texas site to a leading AI lab for 20 years. The contract is worth $9.1 billion in revenue over its base term and could reach $16.1 billion with two five-year extensions.

The deal was made possible by a $573 million post-IPO debt financing from Morgan Stanley. This funding will allow Riot to expand into AI data centres, shifting away from pure Bitcoin mining. The company is already seeing the benefits of this shift, having secured another contract with AMD in January that ramps through 2027.

The mining business has been facing challenges due to a lower Bitcoin price, which dropped by 27% year-over-year. Direct mining costs rose 1.9%, and including hardware depreciation, costs hit $90,631 per BTC - significantly above the average production value. This trend is driving Riot's focus on AI data centres, following in the footsteps of Core Scientific and TeraWulf.