Riot Platforms surges 20% in pre-market trading on $9.1 billion Anthropic deal
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- Riot Platforms shares surged more than 20% in pre-market trading Tuesday after signing a 20-year, $9.1 billion deal to supply Anthropic with 191 megawatts of computing capacity at its Rockdale, Texas campus.
- Two five-year extension options could lift total contract value to $16.1 billion; Riot projects $7.3–$8.2 billion in cumulative net operating income from the base term, with deployment starting December 2027 and full buildout by June 2028.
- The Anthropic deal follows Riot's lease with AMD, bringing contracted AI capacity at Rockdale to 241 megawatts; Riot delivered an initial 25 MW in Q2 and is constructing another 25 MW.
- Riot is financing the data center buildout by selling monthly bitcoin production, reducing its treasury from 15,680 BTC to 11,380 BTC in Q2 — a 4,300 BTC drawdown.
- Q2 revenue rose 14% to $174.2 million, including $23.2 million from data centers, while bitcoin-mining revenue fell to $113.7 million as lower prices and rising network competition offset higher production.
- Rival AI-focused miners Cipher Mining, TeraWulf, and IREN remain more than 40% below their record highs despite continued dealmaking.
- Anthropic separately signed a six-year, $10 billion contract with Volta Infra for computing capacity at a Norway site operated by bitcoin miner Bitdeer.
Why it matters: Riot is funding its AI pivot by liquidating its own bitcoin treasury (4,300 BTC sold in Q2), trading a deflationary crypto asset for 20 years of contracted compute revenue. Yet the broader market hasn't bought the thesis: Cipher, TeraWulf, and IREN remain 40%+ below their highs despite similar deals.
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