Bitcoin Miner Riot Platforms Inks $311M AI Data Center Deal with AMD After Selling Bitcoin

Riot Platforms Secures Major AI Data Center Partnership with AMD

Riot Platforms announced a landmark deal with Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) that signals a decisive strategic shift from cryptocurrency mining toward AI infrastructure providers. The Bitcoin miner sold approximately 1,080 Bitcoin to finance a $96 million land acquisition for 200 acres at its Rockdale, Texas facility, North America's largest Bitcoin mining site by developed capacity 1

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. Under the agreement, Riot will lease 25 megawatts of IT load capacity to AMD, with construction scheduled to begin in January 2026 and complete by May 2026 2

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. The initial 10-year data center lease is projected to generate approximately $311 million in revenue, with potential to reach nearly $1 billion if three five-year extension options are exercised 1

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Texas Land Deal Positions Riot in Hyperscale Data Center Space

The $96 million land acquisition gives Riot Platforms complete ownership of one of its most valuable assets, featuring a 700-megawatt grid connection, dedicated water supply, and fiber connectivity 2

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. AMD retains the option to expand leased capacity up to 200 megawatts, which would place Riot in direct competition with top players in the U.S. hyperscale data center space 2

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. CEO Jason Les stated that the company has expanded its fully approved power portfolio to 1.7 gigawatts, firmly establishing Rockdale as a leading data center development opportunity 3

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. The Rockdale site contains seven buildings with various immersion and air-cooling technology systems 3

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Market Response and Strategic Transformation

RIOT stock surged over 11% to $18.80 on the Nasdaq following the announcement, with shares climbing more than 12% during the session to trade near $18.61 1

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. The deal with Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) represents a pivotal moment for Riot, coming less than twelve months since the company launched its formal process to evaluate assets for high-performance computing (HPC) use 1

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. Last week, Riot disclosed it had sold 1,818 BTC in December as part of its broader strategy shift, while still holding 18,005 BTC valued at over $17 billion as of December 31 1

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Industry-Wide Trend Toward AI Computing Workloads

Riot Platforms joins a growing wave of Bitcoin miners pivoting to AI infrastructure. CleanSpark announced a similar move, reaching an agreement to purchase 447 acres in Brazoria County, Texas, to develop a 300 MW data center designed for artificial intelligence and high-performance computing workloads 1

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. Other major players including MARA Holdings, Core Scientific, Hut 8, and TeraWulf have also announced plans aligned with AI and high-performance computing 1

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. The shift reflects AI companies' need for enormous amounts of reliable power and customized data center design, making Bitcoin miners with existing high-efficiency operations ideal candidates to become AI infrastructure providers 2

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. This positions the deal as part of direct competition with NVIDIA in the AI hardware space, extending Riot's business model relevance beyond cryptocurrency cycles 2

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