Riot signed a 15-year lease covering 910 MW at its Corsicana campus in Texas, with an unnamed AI lab agreeing to pay about $28 billion over the initial term.
- Riot said it does “not currently anticipate issuing equity to fund our announced projects.”
- The Corsicana agreement takes Riot’s contracted data center capacity to 1,151 MW and its total contracted revenue to about $38 billion.
- The company beat Wall Street estimates on third-quarter revenue and earnings.
Riot Platforms (RIOT) shares surged in morning trade on Wednesday after the Bitcoin (BTC) miner reported third-quarter results that topped analyst estimates and announced its largest-ever AI data center lease, a 15-year agreement valued at about $28 billion, even as the broader sector slumped.
The tenant, which Riot identified only as “a leading Frontier AI Lab,” will lease 910 megawatts (MW) of computing capacity at the company’s Corsicana campus in Texas. The agreement is expected to generate about $28 billion over its initial term, averaging around $1.8 billion annually.
The unnamed tenant also has two five-year extension options. If both are exercised, the total value of the lease could reach approximately $54 billion.
RIOT stock rose over 13.5% in morning trade, on track to post its largest weekly gain since May. It was among the top trending tickers on Stocktwits at the time of writing.
Retail sentiment around the shares flipped to ‘bullish’ from ‘bearish’ territory over the past day, and chatter surged to ‘high’ from ‘low’ levels. Platform data showed an increase of 87% in message volume in the last 24 hours.
Riot Says Corsicana Lease Will Not Require New Equity
CEO Jason Les said the structure of the agreement “matters as much as the scale.” The lease is structured as a triple-net agreement, meaning the tenant is responsible for operating expenses such as taxes, insurance and maintenance.
Riot estimates the project will cost about $6 million per MW, bringing the total investment to around $5.5 billion. Les said that was about half the cost of a typical high-end data center.
Riot expects to spend approximately $2 million per MW on site work and electrical infrastructure. The remaining $4 million per MW will be reimbursed to the tenant, funded either through project debt or by the tenant itself. The AI lab will purchase, own, and operate the computers used at the facility.
The company said it does “not currently anticipate issuing equity to fund our announced projects.” Riot has not raised equity this year. Instead, it sold 20,264 bitcoin, worth about $1.5 billion, during the first nine months of the year, primarily to fund its data center development plans.
Riot’s Third Data Center Lease
The Corsicana agreement is Riot’s third data center lease as the company shifts beyond Bitcoin (BTC) mining and expands into AI infrastructure.
In August, Riot signed a 20-year lease valued at $9.1 billion for 191 MW of capacity at its Rockdale campus in Texas with the same unnamed AI lab. The company also has a smaller agreement with Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).
With the latest deal, Riot said it has secured contracts covering 1,151 MW of capacity and about $38 billion in total data center revenue. The company expects the agreements to generate more than $2 billion in average annual net operating income once the facilities are fully operational.
The Corsicana capacity will come online in three stages. The company said it’s aiming for 400 MW in September 2027, 200 MW in January 2028 and 310 MW in July 2028.
Riot’s Q3 Earnings Beat Estimates
Riot reported third-quarter revenue of $181.4 million, up 1% from a year earlier and above analyst estimates of $160.2 million. Its loss per share was $0.01, compared with estimates of $0.31.
The company mined 1,637 bitcoin during the quarter, up from 1,406 a year earlier. However, Bitcoin mining revenue fell to $116 million from $160.8 million, reflecting lower bitcoin prices despite higher production.
Data center revenue was $18.4 million. Net income fell to $4 million from $104.5 million a year earlier. Riot ended the quarter with $950 million in cash and bitcoin.
BTIG analyst Gregory Lewis maintained a ‘Buy’ rating and a $40 price target, according to TheFly. He said the firm has long viewed Corsicana as one of the strongest remaining data center sites in the U.S., citing its scale and proximity to Dallas.
With the lease now signed, “all eyes now shift to project execution” and the next phase of growth for Riot’s data center business, BTIG said.
Bernstein Says Data Center Pause Is Likely To Persist
Shares of other Bitcoin miners moved lower Wednesday. Bernstein slashed its price targets across the sector, citing the Democratic win in Texas, including Cipher Digital (CIFR), Iren (IREN), Mara Holdings (MARA), and TeraWulf (WULF), in addition to Riot Platforms.
The firm said it expects the data center pause to continue and any data center potential legislation to remain in gridlock.
CIFR stock fell over 19% to an over one-year low of around $6.50 in morning trade, and was among the top trending tickers on Stocktwits. Retail sentiment around the shares continued to trend in ‘bullish’ territory over the past day. MARA stock was down over 4%, while WULF stock dropped 3.8%.
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