Anthropic signs $9.1 billion data center deal with Bitcoin miner Riot Platforms

Riot Platforms has signed a 20-year, $9.1 billion data center lease at its Rockdale, Texas campus with an unnamed frontier AI lab, identified by Bloomberg as Anthropic. The deal covers 191 megawatts of capacity, deploying between December 2027 and June 2028, and could reach $16.1 billion via extensions. To fund the $2.1 billion to $2.3 billion construction, Riot secured a $573 million interim loan from Morgan Stanley and is selling Bitcoin holdings. The agreement highlights an industry-wide pivot by miners toward AI infrastructure.

Riot-Anthropic data center lease

• ▪Riot Platforms signed a 20-year data center lease agreement worth approximately $9.1 billion with an unnamed "leading frontier AI lab" on August 10, 2026.
• ▪Bloomberg reported that the unnamed frontier AI company in the Riot Platforms lease is Anthropic, citing people familiar with the matter.
• ▪Riot Platforms shares surged between 20% and 26% in after-hours and pre-market trading following reports identifying Anthropic as the counterparty to the $9.1 billion deal.

Bitcoin miner AI pivot

• ▪Riot Platforms is financing its data center expansion by selling monthly Bitcoin production and reducing its treasury holdings from 15,680 BTC to 11,380 BTC during the second quarter of 2026.
• ▪Publicly traded Bitcoin miners are increasingly valued as digital infrastructure owners due to their power capacity, cooling systems, and established grid connections amid surging AI demand.
• ▪Riot Platforms, which originally manufactured biotech diagnostic equipment under the name Bioptix, is shifting its business model from Bitcoin mining toward AI infrastructure hosting.

Rockdale campus deployment timeline

• ▪Deployment of the 191 megawatts at the Rockdale campus will occur in phases, with 96 megawatts scheduled for December 2027 and the full buildout expected by June 2028.
• ▪The lease agreement covers 191 megawatts of computing capacity at Riot Platforms' Rockdale, Texas campus, which is enough power to run approximately 143,000 homes.
• ▪The Anthropic agreement follows an earlier lease with Advanced Micro Devices, bringing Riot Platforms' total contracted AI capacity at the Rockdale campus to 241 megawatts.

Deal revenue projections

• ▪Two five-year extension options in the lease agreement could increase the total contract revenue for Riot Platforms to $16.1 billion.
• ▪The 20-year base term of the lease is projected to generate between $7.3 billion and $8.2 billion in cumulative net operating income for Riot Platforms.

Morgan Stanley construction financing

• ▪Morgan Stanley provided Riot Platforms with a $573 million interim financing facility to cover early development costs while a long-term credit backstop is finalized.
• ▪Riot Platforms estimates the total construction spending for the 191-megawatt project will be between $2.1 billion and $2.3 billion.

Anthropic infrastructure expansion

• ▪Anthropic has committed to other major infrastructure deals, including a six-year, $10 billion contract with Volta Infra and a multi-gigawatt TPU deal with Google and Broadcom.
• ▪Anthropic is paying SpaceX an estimated $1.25 billion per month through May 2029 for the Colossus 1 data center.