Riot Platforms shares surged more than 20% in pre-market trading on Tuesday after Bloomberg identified Anthropic as the counterparty behind a $9.1 billion, 20-year lease agreement for AI computing capacity at the Bitcoin miner's Rockdale, Texas campus.

When Riot announced the deal on Monday, it withheld the tenant's identity, describing the party only as "one of the world's leading frontier AI labs." Hours later, Bloomberg reported that the customer was Anthropic, citing people familiar with the matter. Anthropic, the maker of the Claude AI assistant, is backed by billions in funding from Amazon and Google, making it one of the best-capitalized AI labs pursuing large-scale compute capacity.

Retail trading activity intensified following the report. RIOT became the most-discussed ticker on Stocktwits, with sentiment shifting from "bullish" to "extremely bullish." The stock gained over 26% overnight. Even before Monday's rally, shares had already risen 53% year-to-date.

The deal reflects a broader trend among Bitcoin miners, who are increasingly repurposing their access to large-scale power infrastructure and industrial sites to host AI computing workloads. Miners like Core Scientific, Hut 8, and Iris Energy have struck similar partnerships with cloud and AI firms, capitalizing on a shortage of available power for data center development across the United States. For miners, AI hosting offers contracted, multi-year revenue streams that contrast with the volatility of cryptocurrency mining income.

Contract Details: 191 Megawatts at Rockdale

The lease covers 191 megawatts of capacity at the Rockdale site and runs for 20 years. Two optional five-year extensions could bring the total contract value to $16.1 billion. Riot Platforms expects the base term to generate between $7.3 billion and $8.2 billion in net operating income.

Capacity will be deployed in phases. Up to 96 megawatts are scheduled to come online in December 2027, with full deployment expected by June 2028. Riot stated that a $573 million interim loan from Morgan Stanley will cover initial development costs until a long-term credit backstop is established.

Anthropic becomes the second tenant at Rockdale. In January, Riot signed a separate agreement with AMD, a deal that sent shares up 13% at the time. Combined, Riot's contracted AI capacity at the facility now totals 241 megawatts.

CEO Jason Les stated in the company's earnings release: "We have now executed leases totaling 241 megawatts of capacity, representing approximately $9.8 billion of long-term, contracted revenue with two of the most important companies in the AI ecosystem."

Q2 Results: Revenue Up, But Net Loss Widens

The lease announcement coincided with Riot's mixed second-quarter earnings. Total revenue increased 14% to $174.2 million, but the company reported a net loss of $237.2 million, a sharp swing from the $219.4 million profit recorded in the same quarter a year earlier, according to Yahoo Finance.

Data center revenue reached $23.2 million, comprising $4.9 million from operating leases and $18.3 million from tenant fit-out services. Mining revenue declined to $113.7 million, as lower Bitcoin prices and increased competition offset higher production volumes.

To fund data center expansion, Riot has been selling its monthly Bitcoin output and drawing down its treasury holdings. During the second quarter, the company's Bitcoin reserves fell from 15,680 BTC to 11,380 BTC, a reduction of 4,300 coins. The $9.1 billion Anthropic lease is not expected to generate revenue until late 2027, leaving Riot reliant on mining income and its remaining Bitcoin treasury in the interim.