Riot Platforms, one of the world's largest Bitcoin mining companies, has agreed to a 20-year lease with AI company Anthropic worth USD 9.1 billion, covering 191 megawatts of capacity at its data center campus in Rockdale, Texas.

The Deal's Structure and Scale

Riot Platforms announced the agreement on August 10, 2026, identifying the counterparty in its initial statement only as "one of the world's leading frontier AI labs."

The contract carries an initial 20-year term but also includes two five-year extension options. Should both extensions be exercised, the total potential contract value would rise to USD 16.5 billion. Of the 191 megawatts of capacity covered by the agreement, 96 megawatts is expected to go live in December 2027, with full deployment slated for completion in June 2028.

To fund initial development costs while an investment-grade credit backstop is finalized, Riot said a USD 573 million interim financing facility provided by Morgan Stanley has been put in place.

Recently, Riot Platforms expanded two-story Data Center at Corsicana Campus, Texas.

Rockdale Campus Gains Second Major Tenant

The first customer was semiconductor company AMD, with which Riot struck a lease in January 2026. That deal included an initial deployment of 25 megawatts of critical IT load capacity, delivered in phases beginning in January 2026 with five megawatts, and completing in May 2026.

The AMD agreement also includes the potential to expand to a total of up to 200 megawatts of critical IT load capacity at the campus.

Riot CEO Jason Les described the deal as a milestone for the company's broader strategy. "Today's announcement of a landmark 20-year, 191 MW data center lease with a leading frontier AI lab marks a defining moment in our evolution into a leading developer of large-scale data centers," Les said.

"It builds directly on a strong second quarter, in which we completed delivery of the initial 25 MW to AMD on time and on budget."

Les added that, combined with the AMD lease, Riot has now executed agreements totaling 241 megawatts of capacity, representing approximately USD 9.8 billion of long-term contracted revenue with what he called "two of the most important companies in the AI ecosystem."

Q2 Financial Results Accompany the Announcement

Riot released its second quarter 2026 financial results alongside the leasing announcement.

Total revenue for the three-month period ending in the second quarter came to USD 174.2 million, representing a 14 percent year-on-year increase.

Data center revenue for the quarter totaled USD 23.2 million, made up of USD 4.9 million in operating lease revenue and USD 18.3 million in tenant fit-out services revenue. The company also reported producing 1,587 Bitcoin during the quarter, a year-on-year increase of 161 Bitcoin.

A Company in Strategic Transition

Formerly known as Riot Blockchain, Riot Platforms has been publicly discussing a pivot toward AI and high-performance computing data centers since 2024.

The company owns and manages more than 1,100 acres and 1.7 gigawatts of power capacity across its two Texas facilities.

It also owns two operational sites in Kentucky totaling 60 megawatts, acquired through the purchase of Block Mining in July 2024, with those sites capable of reaching more than 300 megawatts at full build-out. The Rockdale campus has previously drawn environmental scrutiny.

Greenpeace accused Riot of operating the largest, and one of the most energy and carbon-intensive, Bitcoin mines in the United States.

The latest agreements signal the company's continued effort to reposition its power-heavy infrastructure around the growing demand for AI computing capacity rather than cryptocurrency mining alone.

Digital Infrastructure Expansion

The reported agreement with Riot represents a significant infrastructure commitment as AI companies race to secure dedicated computing capacity to train and run large-scale AI models.

The 191-megawatt footprint at Rockdale, backed by a contract stretching potentially 30 years if extension options are taken up, underscores the scale of long-term power and facility commitments being made across the AI industry.

Riot did not offered public comment on the specific terms of the customer relationship beyond what Riot disclosed in its official statement.