Riot Platforms disclosed on August 10 a 20-year, more than $9.1 billion data center lease with what it called one of the world's leading AI labs; media reports identified the tenant as Anthropic. According to TechNews and Inside, the deal covers 191MW at Riot's Rockdale campus, with extensions potentially raising total value to about $16.1 billion.
What are the scale and timeline of the 20-year Anthropic-Riot deal?
On August 10, Riot Platforms (NASDAQ: RIOT) announced a 20-year data center lease-and-services agreement, according to Inside. The company's own announcement did not name the tenant, describing it only as "one of the world's leading AI labs" — but according to Inside, outside reports identified the counterparty as Anthropic. Separately, TechNews reported that Riot and the AI startup Anthropic signed a 20-year computing power agreement worth more than $9.1 billion.
The lease covers Riot's Rockdale, Texas campus and runs through June 2048, with the tenant holding two five-year extension options that, according to Inside, could lift total contract value to roughly $16.1 billion — a figure TechNews also cited. The agreement is expected to deliver 191MW of critical IT capacity, per both TechNews and Inside, built on the Rockdale campus's existing, already-approved interconnection.
| Metric | Figure | Source |
|---|
| Contract length | 20 years, through June 2048 | Inside |
| Base-term contract revenue | ~$9.1 billion | TechNews, Inside |
| Total value with extensions | ~$16.1 billion (two 5-year options) | TechNews, Inside |
| Power capacity | 191MW | TechNews, Inside |
| First-phase capacity online | 96MW by December 2027 | Inside |
| Full deployment | 191MW by June 2028 | Inside |
| Estimated net operating income (base term) | $7.3B–$8.2B ($365M–$411M/year average) | Inside |
What effect did the signing news have on Riot's stock price?
The two outlets reported slightly different intraday moves but converged on the same closing price. TechNews reported Riot shares jumped as much as 20% intraday on August 11 before giving back most of the gain, closing at $20.24. Inside reported an intraday gain of more than 17%, with shares finishing the session up 4.33% at $20.24. Both figures point to the same closing price even as the two outlets recorded different peak intraday moves — a reminder that intraday highs are timing-sensitive while the closing print is the figure both sources agree on.
What is the commercial layout of Riot's Rockdale campus, and who are its other major tenants?
Anthropic is the second tenant at Rockdale. The first is AMD, whose lease — Riot's first major institutional data center agreement — was announced January 16, 2026, according to TechNews and Inside. Inside reported that Riot delivered the final 20MW of that initial deployment in the second quarter, bringing the full 25MW to commercial operation. AMD's expansion continues with a 10MW third phase due in November 2026 and a 15MW fourth phase due in May 2027, at which point AMD's contracted 50MW will be fully deployed, per Inside.
With Anthropic's arrival, Rockdale becomes a dual-tenant campus. Compass Point analyst Michael Donovan told Inside that combined contracted data center revenue across the campus's tenants now totals $9.8 billion.
| Tenant | Milestone | Capacity |
|---|
| AMD | Lease announced January 16, 2026 | 25MW (delivered Q2 2026) |
| AMD | Phase 3 delivery | 10MW, due November 2026 |
| AMD | Phase 4 delivery | 15MW, due May 2027 |
| AMD | Total contracted | 50MW |
| Anthropic | Lease signed August 2026 | 191MW |
How is Riot's business mix shifting, and what do its financials and mining costs show?
Riot's second-quarter results, reported by Inside, show a company in transition. Total revenue reached $174.2 million, up 14% year over year, with data center revenue of $23.2 million — composed of $4.9 million in operating lease income and $18.3 million in tenant improvement services revenue. Bitcoin mining revenue, by contrast, fell to $113.7 million from $140.9 million a year earlier, and the company posted a net loss of $237.17 million versus net income of $219.45 million in the prior-year quarter.
Mining economics also tightened by the numbers: the second-quarter cost per bitcoin, excluding depreciation, was $49,912 — equal to 69.6% of that quarter's per-bitcoin value, up from 49.6% a year earlier, according to Inside. Riot ended the quarter with more than $1.2 billion in liquid assets, including 11,380 bitcoin (5,821 of which are pledged as collateral) and $548.9 million in cash. CEO Jason Les said that in just over six months, Riot has signed a combined 241MW of capacity corresponding to roughly $9.8 billion in long-term contracted revenue, with counterparties he described as "two of the most important companies in the AI ecosystem."
| Q2 2026 metric | Value | Prior-year comparison |
|---|
| Total revenue | $174.2 million | +14% YoY |
| Data center revenue | $23.2 million | $4.9M lease + $18.3M tenant improvement |
| Bitcoin mining revenue | $113.7 million | vs. $140.9 million |
| Net result | Net loss $237.17 million | vs. net income $219.45 million |
| Cost per bitcoin (ex-depreciation) | $49,912 | 69.6% of BTC value vs. 49.6% |
| Liquid assets | >$1.2 billion | 11,380 BTC (5,821 pledged) + $548.9M cash |
Why is Anthropic expanding its compute footprint, and how fast is its business growing?
According to Inside, the same disclosure that surfaced the Riot deal showed Anthropic's annualized run-rate revenue has surpassed $30 billion, up from about $9 billion at the end of 2025. The number of enterprise customers spending more than $1 million a year grew from over 500 — the figure disclosed at its February Series G announcement — to over 1,000 in under two months.
Anthropic has also been securing compute from multiple directions. On April 6, it announced a multi-gigawatt next-generation TPU capacity agreement with Google and Broadcom, with capacity coming online starting in 2027; Inside reported this new capacity is mostly US-based and extends the $50 billion US compute infrastructure investment plan Anthropic announced in November 2025. In early August, outside reports cited by Inside said Anthropic separately signed a six-year, $10 billion compute deal with NVIDIA-backed cloud startup Volta Infra, drawing power from Bitdeer's campus in Tydal, Norway.
How is Riot funding its expansion, and how are its other campuses progressing?
Inside reported that Morgan Stanley is providing a $573 million bridge financing facility to cover initial development costs tied to the buildout, while an investment-grade credit backstop is still being finalized. Beyond Rockdale, CEO Jason Les said Riot's Corsicana, Texas campus — a full 1GW site — has a non-binding letter of intent signed with a single, unnamed tenant covering approximately 756MW of critical IT capacity.
Is the pivot from bitcoin mining to AI infrastructure an isolated case, or a broader industry trend?
Riot's own shift — from a mining segment with declining revenue and a quarterly net loss toward a data center leasing business generating contracted, multi-billion-dollar revenue — mirrors a pattern TechNews says the market is already applying to other miners. According to TechNews, Cipher Mining, Hut 8, and TeraWulf are now viewed by the market as "hybrid miners" that operate both bitcoin mining and AI infrastructure businesses, placing Riot's Anthropic and AMD deals within a wider category of miners repositioning toward AI compute leasing rather than standing as a singular case.
What this means
The numbers Riot and Anthropic have disclosed point in the same direction from two sides of the table. For Riot, data center revenue is still small in absolute terms ($23.2 million in Q2) next to a bitcoin mining segment that produced a $237.17 million net loss for the quarter and mining costs equal to 69.6% of per-coin value — but the contracted pipeline behind that data center business, at $9.8 billion in combined AMD and Anthropic revenue per Les and Compass Point's Donovan, dwarfs current quarterly mining economics. For Anthropic, the Riot lease is one of several compute commitments layered together — the Google/Broadcom TPU deal, the $50 billion US infrastructure plan, and the Volta Infra/Bitdeer arrangement — arriving alongside run-rate revenue that TechNews and Inside both source as having tripled from about $9 billion to over $30 billion and an enterprise customer base that doubled in under two months. The reported 17%-to-20% intraday stock swings that both settled at the same $20.24 close suggest the market is still pricing in some uncertainty about how much of that $16.1 billion long-term contract value will translate into near-term results, even as Riot leans further into financing — including the $573 million Morgan Stanley facility — to build it out.