What Anthropic's $9 Billion Deal With This Data Center Operator Means for the AI Boom -- Barrons.com

By Mackenzie Tatananni

Riot Platforms stock extended gains after the Bitcoin miner-turned-data center operator revealed it had signed a $9.1 billion deal with a "leading frontier AI" company.

That customer is Anthropic, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to Barron's.

Riot stock began rising in after-hours trading Monday once the company disclosed a 20-year agreement to supply 191 megawatts of compute capacity from its Rockdale, Texas, campus to an unnamed artificial-intelligence company, now known to be Anthropic.

Shares continued their ascent on Tuesday, rising 4.9% as the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite traded flat.

Riot expects the deal, which runs through June 2048, to generate $9.1 billion in revenue, with two optional five-year extensions pushing potential total sales to $16.1 billion. The company didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Barron's.

Riot traces its roots back to Bioptix, a diagnostic machinery maker that was purchased in 2016 by biotechnology firm Venaxis. Following the acquisition, the company pivoted into cryptocurrency mining and rebranded.

Riot formally marked its shift into high-performance computing and data center leasing in January 2026, when it announced its first major institutional data center lease with Advanced Micro Devices.

Yet to turn an annual profit, Riot is under pressure to close deals faster. In February, activist investor Starboard Value sent a letter to executive leadership demanding a "renewed sense of urgency" in securing AI and high-performance computing contracts at its facilities.

While only indirectly linked, Riot and Anthropic shared a key connection through AMD. When Riot struck its deal with the chip maker, its Rockdale campus emerged as a candidate for AI lab facilities. By late July, AMD deepened its AI push with a multibillion-dollar strategic partnership with Anthropic.

Jefferies analyst Jonathan Petersen noted that Riot had delivered an initial 25 megawatts to AMD in May, "on time and on budget." From his perspective, Riot's ability to stay on schedule bodes well for its execution ability, even though the AMD deal was more bespoke than a turnkey data-center deal.

"Still, this execution provides some comfort that Riot will be able to deliver its much larger frontier AI lab buildout" on time, Petersen wrote.

The company generated $174.2 million in revenue during its latest quarter. Riot's Bitcoin mining division accounted for the bulk of that amount, even as revenue fell 19% from last year to $113.7 million amid lower average Bitcoin prices and rising network competition.

Just $23.2 million of total revenue stemmed from the data center segment. The vast majority, at $18.3 million, was driven by "tenant fit-out services," or the infrastructure and construction work needed to prepared data centers for tenants.

Riot is only the latest crypto miner to pivot into AI. TeraWulf and Cipher Mining made the jump in late 2025 upon realizing their most valuable asset wasn't Bitcoin, but their direct access to electricity -- now a prized commodity for power-hungry AI workloads.

Riot's market capitalization hovered around $7.3 billion as of Monday's close. Shares have surged 58% this year, handily outpacing the broader market. However, the rally remains largely speculative, fueled by enthusiasm around the company's pivot into data-center infrastructure in spite of its unproven long-term track record.

Write to Mackenzie Tatananni at mackenzie.tatananni@barrons.com

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 11, 2026 11:26 ET (15:26 GMT)