Riot Platforms signs a $9.1 billion, 20-year data center lease agreement with Anthropic

Riot Platforms announced it has signed a 20-year data center lease agreement with a partner described in SEC filings as a "leading pioneering AI company"; the deal is expected to generate total revenue of approximately $9.1 billion.

8/11/20265 min read

Converting a 700 MW Bitcoin mining infrastructure to support AI.

Riot's Rockdale complex in Milam County, Texas, was originally built as one of the largest Bitcoin mining facilities in the United States, based on a 700-megawatt power capacity already developed and operational, large-scale power and fiber optic infrastructure, industrial land planning, and experience operating high-energy computing systems on a scale that most dedicated AI data centers haven't reached. Riot has publicly stated its intention to convert the entire power capacity of the complex to serve time-based data center tenants; they view the massive investment in Rockdale's power infrastructure as a competitive advantage when bidding on AI computing contracts, rather than as a dedicated Bitcoin mining asset that needs replacing.

The partnership with AMD, signed in January 2026, initially had a capacity of 25 megawatts and was later doubled to 50 megawatts through capacity expansion. A 191-megawatt lease with Anthropic adds to that platform, bringing the total committed capacity of the two tenants to 241 megawatts under the signed agreements. Riot also announced a letter of intent (non-binding) relating to the complex in Corsicana, Texas, thereby identifying a second potential location for conversion into an AI data center alongside Rockdale.

The 191 megawatt figure provides a useful measure of scale. Riot says this is equivalent to the electricity needs of approximately 143,000 households at any given time. Comparison points from recent deals include: a 401-megawatt, 20-year lease between TeraWulf and Anthropic at the Justified Data Campus in Hawesville, Kentucky, valued at approximately $19 billion; and the Volta Norway facility (with Anthropic as the client), a 133-megawatt, 6-year lease valued at $10 billion. Riot's $9.1 billion, 191-megawatt, 20-year contract falls somewhere between these two in terms of both capacity and duration, suggesting Riot achieved a lease price that aligns with the emerging market price levels for Anthropic's expanding computing capacity portfolio.

Credit financing from Morgan Stanley

The phased deployment structure, aiming for 96 megawatts by December 2027 and the remaining 95 megawatts by June 2028, gives Riot approximately 16 months from contract announcement to complete the first delivery and 22 months to deliver the full capacity. This roadmap requires the completion of the necessary engineering, construction, electrical infrastructure configuration, and cooling system installation to transform the legacy Bitcoin mining infrastructure into a high-density AI computing environment, meeting the operational reliability and redundancy standards required for training AI models at the scale of Anthropic.

The $573 million interim funding from Morgan Stanley will cover initial development costs during the construction phase, before the long-term financing package, which Riot aims to achieve investment-grade credit quality, is finalized. This investment-grade credit guarantee structure is similar to the financing model used in other projects converting Bitcoin mining infrastructure to AI services; where long-term revenue from AI service tenants serves as the cash flow basis to finance the infrastructure with credit terms appropriate for contracted infrastructure, rather than the speculative debt often seen in technology companies.

Riot estimates total net operating income over the base term of the contract will range from $7.3 billion to $8.2 billion; this figure represents the expected profit after deducting construction and operating costs, rather than the total revenue of $9.1 billion. This estimated range reflects uncertainties related to construction costs, operating efficiency, and tenant usage patterns throughout the 20-year term of the contract.

Anthropic's three-month process of accumulating computing power.

The deal with Riot represents Anthropic's third large-scale acquisition of computing power in a three-month period. This demonstrates an ambitious pace of infrastructure buildup, reflecting both the company's belief in the sustained demand for Claude models and structural constraints: training and operating advanced AI inference models at commercial scale requires computing resources beyond the rapid delivery capabilities of any single hyperscale cloud provider currently available.

Anthropic's portfolio of computing capacity commitments as of August 11 includes: a commitment of approximately $45 billion with SpaceX for computing resources (agreement announced May 2026); a $10 billion, six-year agreement with Volta Infra Holdings for 133 megawatts of capacity in Tydal, Norway (announced August 4); a $19 billion, 20-year lease with TeraWulf for 401 megawatts of capacity at Justified Data Campus in Hawesville, Kentucky; and most recently, a $9.1 billion, 20-year lease with Riot Platforms for 191 megawatts of capacity in Rockdale, Texas. The total value of these announced agreements is approximately $83 billion, not including previous agreements with Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services, Broadcom, and AMD. The $60 billion figure calculated by TradingKey in the last three months alone shows a significant acceleration, thanks to the financial resources secured from Anthropic's $65 billion funding round in early 2026, enabling such large-scale infrastructure investment commitments.

Assessment and Conclusion

The Riot-Anthropic deal is the single most commercially significant transaction to date in the broader trend among Bitcoin mining companies: converting energy infrastructure to computing power for AI. This deal surpasses the TeraWulf-Anthropic lease agreement in terms of total contract revenue, but falls short in terms of capacity size and revenue per megawatt. This trend reflects a general structural reality of the industry: Bitcoin miners have built the essential infrastructure—including grid connections, industrial facilities, and experience in operating high-density computing systems—that AI data center tenants need; meanwhile, the economic benefits of mining Bitcoin at current prices are significantly lower than the lease prices AI companies are willing to pay for stable, long-term computing power.

Projects such as MARA Holdings' 1,200-acre complex in Matagorda County, Texas (aiming for a capacity of up to 2 gigawatts), Core Scientific's infrastructure lease agreement with CoreWeave, and now Riot's commitment to Anthropic, have all confirmed that the former Bitcoin mining industry has successfully repositioned its infrastructure assets. These assets are fueling one of the largest infrastructure acquisition waves in tech history, where AI labs are driving demand at a pace that dedicated construction projects cannot keep up with, given the tight timelines of the computing power race.

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