Riot Platforms has signed a 20-year data center lease worth $9.1 billion with an unnamed “leading frontier AI lab” at its Rockdale, Texas campus, the bitcoin miner turned AI infrastructure company disclosed alongside its second-quarter earnings this week. Regional outlets have identified the tenant as Anthropic, though Riot’s own securities filing does not name the company.
The lease covers 191 megawatts of critical IT capacity at Riot’s Rockdale campus in Milam County, the site of a former Alcoa aluminum smelter that Riot has redeveloped for computing infrastructure, according to the company’s second-quarter earnings release filed with the SEC. Riot said it expects to deliver an initial 96 megawatts by December 2027, with full deployment complete by June 2028.
Riot estimates the lease will generate $7.3 billion to $8.2 billion in net operating income over its base term. The agreement includes two five-year extension options that could push the deal’s total potential value to $16.1 billion if fully exercised.
Part of a broader pivot to AI infrastructure
The Rockdale deal builds on Riot’s existing data center business, which generated $23.2 million in revenue during the second quarter as the company continues shifting capacity away from bitcoin mining and toward leasing power and space to artificial intelligence companies. Riot’s total second-quarter revenue rose 14% year over year to $174.2 million, and the company reported $1.2 billion in liquid assets on hand.
“It builds directly on a strong second quarter, in which we completed delivery of the initial 25 megawatts to AMD on time and on budget,” Riot said in the earnings release, referencing a separate data center customer relationship the company has already begun serving from the same campus.
If the tenant is confirmed to be Anthropic, the Rockdale lease would mark at least the AI company’s second major Texas data center commitment this year. RealtyWire previously reported that banks led by Morgan Stanley lined up roughly $15 billion in debt financing for a separate, 2,000-acre Anthropic-leased campus in Hubbard, Texas, developed by Nexus Data Centers with Google backstopping the lease obligations.
What it means
Verified facts: Riot’s SEC filing confirms a 20-year, $9.1 billion lease for 191 MW of capacity at its Rockdale campus with an undisclosed AI-lab tenant, an estimated $7.3-8.2 billion in net operating income, and a delivery timeline running from an initial 96 MW in December 2027 to full deployment by June 2028.
Attributed interpretation: Regional media outlets have reported the tenant is Anthropic, a detail Riot’s own disclosure does not confirm or name.
RealtyWire analysis: The deal underscores how quickly former industrial sites in rural Texas β in this case a decommissioned aluminum smelter β are being repurposed for AI-driven power and real estate demand. Texas has emerged as the single most active state for this kind of large-scale data center leasing, a trend RealtyWire has tracked across multiple campuses this year, even as the state’s own regulators have begun scrutinizing the sector’s competition with homebuilders for land, power and water.
What to watch
Riot’s initial 96-megawatt delivery deadline of December 2027 will be the first concrete test of whether the company can execute on the buildout timeline. Investors will also be watching whether Riot discloses the tenant’s identity in future filings, and whether the company signs additional leases at Rockdale or other sites as it continues pivoting from bitcoin mining toward AI infrastructure leasing.
