Riot signs 20-year, 191MW lease with Anthropic worth $9.1 billion

Riot Platforms has agreed a 20-year lease worth $9.1 billion for 191MW of capacity at its data center campus in Rockdale, Texas, in a deal Bloomberg reported involves Anthropic, citing people familiar with the situation.

Riot said in a statement that it had signed the agreement with "one of the world’s leading frontier AI labs." Bloomberg said Riot declined to comment and Anthropic did not respond to the news outlet’s request for comment.

The contract covers 191MW of capacity, with 96MW expected to go live in December 2027 and full deployment scheduled for June 2028. Riot said the deal includes two five-year extension options that could raise the total potential contract value to $16.5bn if both are exercised.

A $573 million interim financing facility from Morgan Stanley will fund initial development costs while an investment-grade credit backstop is finalized, according to Riot.

The lease marks Riot’s latest move at its Rockdale campus, where it already has a separate agreement with AMD. In January 2026, Riot signed a lease with AMD that included an initial deployment of 25MW of critical IT load capacity to be delivered in phases beginning in January 2026 (5MW) and completing in May 2026, along with another 25MW due next year. That agreement includes the potential to expand to as much as 200MW of critical IT load capacity at the campus.

"Today’s announcement of a landmark 20-year, 191MW 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", said Jason Les, CEO of Riot. "It builds directly on a strong second quarter, in which we completed delivery of the initial 25MW to AMD on time and on budget. In just over six months, Riot has now executed leases totaling 241MW of capacity, representing approximately $9.8 billion of long-term, contracted revenue with two of the most important companies in the AI ecosystem."

Riot disclosed the new lease alongside its Q2 2026 financial results. The company reported revenue of $174.2m for the three-month period, up 14 percent year-on-year.

For the quarter, data center revenue totaled $23.2m, including $4.9m in operating lease revenue and $18.3m in tenant fit-out services revenue. Riot also said it produced 1,587 Bitcoin during the quarter, a YoY increase of 161.

Formerly known as Riot Blockchain, the company is one of the world’s largest Bitcoin miners and has been in discussions about a pivot toward AI and HPC data centers since 2024.

Riot said it owns and manages more than 1,100 acres and 1.7GW of power capacity across its two Texas facilities. It also owns two operational sites in Kentucky totaling 60MW after acquiring Block Mining in July 2024, with those sites able to total more than 300MW at full build-out.

Greenpeace previously accused Riot of operating the "largest, and one of the most energy and carbon-intensive, Bitcoin mines in the US."

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