Riot Platforms Lands $9.1 Billion AI Data Center Deal, Stock Surges 24% on Anthropic Lease

Riot Platforms Secures Landmark AI Data Center Lease

Riot Platforms announced a 20-year data center lease agreement with a leading frontier AI lab for 191 megawatts of critical IT capacity at its Rockdale, Texas facility1

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. Bloomberg reported the AI lab in question is Anthropic4

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. The lease is expected to generate approximately $9.1 billion in total initial contracted revenue through June 20485

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. Two five-year extension options could push the total contract value to approximately $16.1 billion3

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. Riot Platforms expects the agreement to generate $7.3 billion to $8.2 billion in net operating income, representing an 80% to 90% NOI margin1

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Stock Performance and Analyst Response

Riot Platforms stock surged 24.3% in after-hours trading to reach $24.12, extending gains after the Anthropic lease disclosure4

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. The stock has climbed 75% over the past year and is up 53% year-to-date2

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. H.C. Wainwright raised its price target on Riot Platforms stock to $40 from $25 while maintaining a Buy rating3

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. Bernstein raised its price target to $35 from $30, maintaining an Outperform rating2

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. The revised price target from H.C. Wainwright reflects a sum-of-the-parts valuation methodology, assuming $18 per share for Riot's three operating businesses, $2 per share for the market value of Riot's Bitcoin stack of 11,380 Bitcoin, and a risk-weighted contribution of $20 per share for near-term pipeline conversions3

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Strategic Pivot to AI Infrastructure

CEO Jason Les described the deal as "a defining moment in our evolution into a leading developer of large-scale data centers," underscoring the company's deliberate strategic pivot from Bitcoin mining to contracted digital infrastructure4

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. Together, the AMD and AI lab AI contracts now cover 241 megawatts of contracted IT capacity at the Rockdale facility1

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. Riot expects these contracts to generate about $520 million in average annual revenue and $416 million to $462 million in annual NOI1

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. Bernstein said Riot's 1.7-gigawatt power assets across the Rockdale and Corsicana sites are among the best for building AI data centers due to interconnect approval and urban proximity offering low latency2

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Rockdale Development Timeline and Financing

Riot expects to deliver the first 96 megawatts in December 2027, with the remaining capacity scheduled for June 20281

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. The company estimates development costs of $2.1 billion to $2.3 billion, or $11 million to $12 million per IT megawatt1

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. To fund early development and long-lead equipment purchases, Riot secured a $573 million interim financing facility from Morgan Stanley as it works toward permanent investment-grade financing1

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. AMD also exercised an expansion option that doubled its contracted Rockdale capacity to 50 megawatts, with the full deployment expected to generate about $63.6 million in average annual revenue and $51 million in annual NOI1

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Corsicana Data Center Prospects

At the Corsicana data center, Riot signed a non-binding letter of intent with a single prospective tenant for the entire campus1

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. The site has 1 gigawatt of fully approved utility power and could support about 756 megawatts of critical IT capacity1

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. CEO Jason Les said a lease covering the full Corsicana campus could generate more than $1 billion in annual rent once fully deployed, though he cautioned that negotiations remain subject to uncertainty1

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. Across its portfolio, roughly 1 gigawatt of capacity is either contracted or involved in advanced commercial discussions, while total utility power capacity exceeds 2 gigawatts1

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Q2 2026 Financial Performance

Riot delivered a significant Q2 2026 revenue beat, with second-quarter revenue at $174.2 million, well ahead of analyst consensus estimates in the $152-$155 million range and up 14% year over year4

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. Data center revenue reached $23.2 million and generated $6.5 million in gross profit during the quarter1

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. Recurring operating lease revenue more than quadrupled from the first quarter to $4.9 million from $900,000, generating an 84% gross margin and about $4.1 million in gross profit1

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. Engineering revenue more than tripled year over year to $37.3 million, while gross margin climbed above 27% from about 7%1

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. Engineering backlog reached $177.1 million, with roughly 90% tied to data centers1

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. Riot ended the quarter with 11,380 Bitcoin valued at about $666 million and more than $1.2 billion in liquidity, including $549 million in cash1

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