Riot Platforms has entered into a 20-year agreement to supply 191 megawatts of critical IT capacity at its Rockdale, Texas facility, generating a contracted revenue stream of $9.1 billion as the Bitcoin mining company deepens its push into artificial intelligence infrastructure. The deal represents one of the largest AI computing leases secured by a cryptocurrency miner to date, underscoring how quickly the sector is being recast as a critical provider of high-performance computing capacity.

The agreement, dated August 10, extends through June 2048 and carries two additional five-year renewal options that could raise total contract revenue to approximately $16.1 billion.

In its public disclosure, Riot described the counterparty only as a leading frontier AI lab. However, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that Anthropic is the company behind the lease. Neither Riot nor Anthropic had publicly confirmed the other as a counterparty at the time of the announcement. Anthropic, backed by major investments from Amazon and Google, has been rapidly scaling its compute footprint to support its Claude family of AI models, placing it in direct competition with OpenAI for training and inference capacity.

Initial 96 MW Targeted for December 2027 Delivery

Riot will build a Tier 3 build-to-suit data center at Rockdale for the tenant. The first 96 MW of critical IT capacity is scheduled for delivery in December 2027, with the remaining capacity expected to come online by June 2028.

The company projects that the initial 20-year term will produce cumulative net operating income between $7.3 billion and $8.2 billion, representing an average annual contribution of approximately $365 million to $411 million. To put that in perspective, Riot's data-center operations contributed just $23.2 million in the second quarter of 2025, meaning the projected annual NOI from this single lease would dwarf the company's current data-center revenue base.

Morgan Stanley is supplying a $573 million interim financing facility to support initial development while Riot works to finalize an investment-grade credit backstop. Securing that backstop will be a key milestone to watch, as it determines the project's cost of capital and Riot's ability to fund construction without diluting shareholders.

Riot disclosed the lease in its August 10 Form 8-K filing, released alongside second-quarter results showing $174.2 million in revenue, a 14% increase year over year. Data-center operations contributed $23.2 million during the quarter.

Combined Rockdale AI Capacity Now at 241 MW

The Anthropic-linked deal follows Riot's prior contract with AMD, which initially covered 25 MW at Rockdale before AMD exercised an option for an additional 25 MW. Riot has completed delivery of the first 25 MW, and construction of the second phase is ongoing.

Together, the two customers now represent 241 MW of contracted critical IT capacity and roughly $9.8 billion in long-term contracted revenue.

The expansion mirrors a wider trend across the cryptocurrency mining sector, as operators increasingly repower and repurpose existing electrical infrastructure for AI computing workloads. Bitcoin mining stocks have previously rallied on large AI infrastructure agreements, which have elevated the market value of available data-center capacity. Core Scientific, another major miner, signed a multi-year deal with AI cloud provider CoreWeave, while Hut 8 and Iris Energy have also pivoted portions of their portfolios toward AI clients. The strategic appeal is straightforward: miners already control grid-connected sites with power purchase agreements, transformers, and cooling systems—assets that are difficult and time-consuming to secure from scratch.

MARA has pursued a comparable diversification strategy, leveraging its Bitcoin treasury as a funding source. The company sold 23,093 BTC for $1.6 billion as it expanded into AI and energy infrastructure.

RIOT Shares Surge Following Announcement

Riot shares closed Monday at $19.40 before climbing above $24 in after-hours trading following the lease disclosure and reports identifying Anthropic as the tenant. The gain briefly placed the stock approximately 25% above its regular-session close.

The Rockdale agreement also grants the new tenant a conditional first-priority right over an additional 100 MW of capacity that had previously been covered by an AMD right of first refusal.

The initial 96 MW deployment remains on track for December 2027, with the full 191 MW expected to be operational by June 2028.