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Riot signs a $28 billion AI data center lease and its stock jumps, while Hut 8 sinks on a revenue miss as both miners sell bitcoin
Summary
Bitcoin miner Riot Platforms signed a 15-year lease for 910 megawatts at its Corsicana, Texas campus worth about $28 billion, its largest deal yet, and its shares rose more than 13% on Wednesday, Cointelegraph reported.
Cointelegraph said Riot's quarterly filing identifies the tenant as Anthropic; Bitcoin Magazine described it as an unnamed "Frontier AI Lab" and said Riot has now leased 1,151 MW for about $38 billion across three deals.
Riot has sold 20,264 BTC this year for about $1.5 billion to fund data center work and ended September holding 2,418 BTC, Bitcoin Magazine reported. The outlets differ on third-quarter sales: Bitcoin Magazine put them at 12,186 BTC, Cointelegraph at 10,599 BTC.
Fellow miner Hut 8 fell more than 22% at one point after third-quarter revenue dropped 15% to $71.1 million, short of the $75.8 million analysts expected, Cointelegraph reported; Bitcoin Magazine said Hut 8 sold 3,102 BTC since July to fund $250 million in share buybacks.
Updates
- Update, : Update (Nov. 5): Riot's 10-Q names Anthropic as the tenant on the 910 MW Corsicana lease (and on the earlier 191 MW Rockdale lease), CoinDesk and Bitcoin Magazine reported. If project financing is not available on acceptable terms, Riot would give Anthropic rent credits amortizing up to about $3.6 billion in module reimbursements plus 12% annual interest; Riot still expects to fund reimbursements with non-recourse project debt totaling about $5.5 billion and puts average annual rent at about $1.8 billion once fully online. First capacity is targeted for June 2027, with later phases in December 2027 and July 2028. Bitcoin Magazine said Riot expects to keep selling substantially all newly mined bitcoin.
Key facts
- "A year ago, our cash flow depended on the price of Bitcoin, and now, at full deployment of currently executed deals, nearly all of our expected cash flow will be generated from long-term leases with leading players in the AI ecosystem," Riot CEO Jason Les said on the earnings call.
- Riot estimates the Corsicana project's capital costs at $5.5 billion, mostly financed with debt backed by lease payments, though that financing has not been secured; first delivery is expected in September 2027.
- Les said bitcoin mining at Corsicana could begin winding down in summer 2027.
- Riot produced 1,637 BTC in the quarter at an average cost of $39,265 before depreciation, and mining revenue fell 28% to $116 million.
- Riot reported third-quarter revenue of $181.4 million, up 1% from a year earlier.
- Hut 8 has secured $7.5 billion in project bonds to finance two AI data center developments, neither of which yet produces lease revenue.
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