Riot Platforms (RIOT) stock rocketed nearly 11% on Friday after the company executed a wild U-turn from pure-play bitcoin mining to the AI infrastructure gold rush. The company announced it had fully acquired its 200-acre Rockdale, Texas site in a $96 million deal funded entirely by dumping approximately 1,080 BTC from its balance sheet. Basically, they traded digital gold for physical dirt and silicon, a move that would make a maxi cry but makes Wall Street's algorithmic overlords smile.
Simultaneously, Riot locked in a 10-year data center lease and services agreement with chip behemoth AMD, marking its first hyperscale data center tenant. The initial lease covers 25 MW of critical IT load, with phased delivery starting in January 2026 and completing by May 2026. This initial agreement is expected to generate roughly $311 million in revenue, with AMD holding options that could potentially push the total contract value to $1 billion. It’s a long-term bet that the future is not just hashes, but also hallucinations and high-throughput computing.
The move solidifies Riot’s position within the ‘Texas Triangle,’ as the company now owns and manages over 1,100 acres and 1.7 GW of power capacity across its two Texas facilities. This infrastructure pivot aligns Riot with a growing cohort of bitcoin miners capitalizing on the booming demand for AI data centers. They are effectively swapping the volatility of the crypto markets for the volatility of the tech cycle, betting that powering chatbots is the next frontier for their grid connections.
