Riot sells Bitcoin to fund $9.1B AI deal before 2027 rent

Riot Platforms is selling down its Bitcoin treasury to fund a $9.1 billion AI data center build that won't generate rent until December 2027.

Riot Platforms sold 9,665 Bitcoin for $732.5 million in the first half of 2026 to fund a $9.1 billion AI data center deal that begins paying rent only in December 2027.

Bloomberg identified the tenant as Anthropic, developer of the Claude models, citing people familiar with the transaction. Riot's Aug. 10 SEC filing describes the customer only as a "leading frontier AI lab," and neither company confirmed the identity when contacted by Bloomberg.

The 191-megawatt lease at Riot's Rockdale, Texas campus runs through June 2048. The first 96 MW is scheduled for December 2027, when initial rent is expected to commence, with the remaining 95 MW due in June 2028. Riot projects $2.1 billion to $2.3 billion of construction spending, assuming 80 percent to 90 percent comes from long-term project debt that is not disclosed as closed. That leaves $210 million to $460 million of equity funding before an expected $180 million refinancing tied to its AMD deployment reduces the need to $30 million to $280 million.

The construction budget still treats Bitcoin sales as a primary source of equity. At June 30, Riot held 11,380 Bitcoin, with 5,821 pledged against a fully drawn $200 million Coinbase Credit facility — 51.2 percent of holdings under restriction. Its cost to mine one Bitcoin, excluding depreciation, was $49,912 in the second quarter, or 69.6 percent of the $71,667 production value; including depreciation, the figure rose to $90,631, or 126.5 percent of production value.

Bitcoin sales remain the construction equity source

Riot's investor presentation identifies continued Bitcoin sales from inventory as the primary source for data center equity spending. No specific future sale is guaranteed, and Riot had not disclosed a post-quarter sale through Aug. 11, but management's plan treats the treasury as a funding source.

The company produced 1,587 Bitcoin in the second quarter, up from 1,426 a year earlier, while mining revenue fell to $113.7 million from $140.9 million as average Bitcoin prices declined and network hash rate rose. Riot also reported $23.2 million of data center revenue in the quarter, including $18.3 million from tenant fit-out services for AMD, which signed for 25 MW in January and exercised a 25 MW option in April.

Morgan Stanley bridge precedes a $2.3B build

The first bridge is a $573 million interim facility administered by Morgan Stanley Senior Funding, intended for long-lead equipment and development costs. It bears interest at SOFR plus 2.75 percent and matures Oct. 15, 2026, subject to limited extension. The filing does not say the entire facility was drawn or unconditionally available, and Riot says an investment-grade credit backstop is being finalized without disclosing its provider, amount or conditions.

Combined with AMD, Riot now has 241 MW of critical IT capacity under signed leases at Rockdale, with total expected contracted revenue of about $9.8 billion. Two tenant-controlled extensions could lift the new lease's projected revenue to about $16.1 billion. Riot shares jumped about 25 percent to $24.40 in late trading after Bloomberg's report, following a second-quarter net loss of $237.2 million on revenue of $174.2 million, up 14 percent year over year.

Until rent scales, Riot still needs financing that is not yet closed and continued Bitcoin sales for equity, leaving a near-term treasury trade-off inside its long-term AI strategy. The next fixed milestones are the 96 MW delivery in December 2027 and full 191 MW deployment in June 2028, alongside a separate nonbinding letter of intent involving its Corsicana, Texas campus.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.