Riot's $9B AI Lease Shifts Focus from BTC Hash Rate

Riot Platforms has made a significant shift in its business model by signing a 20-year, $9.1 billion compute lease with Anthropic, turning its Texas mining campus into contracted AI infrastructure revenue.

The agreement runs through June 2048 and carries two five-year extension options that could push the total contract value to as much as $16.1 billion if both are exercised.

Riot's stock price jumped 25% to $24.40 in after-hours trading on the news, according to Bloomberg, but then gave back almost all of its gains in regular trading.

This deal marks a strategic pivot for Riot, which has transitioned from a biotech firm to Bitcoin mining and is now evolving into an AI landlord, utilizing its power and land assets.