Anthropic Strikes $9.1 Billion AI Compute Deal with Bitcoin Miner Riot Platforms

Anthropic, a leading artificial intelligence company, has reportedly secured a massive 20-year compute capacity deal worth $9.1 billion with Bitcoin mining firm Riot Platforms. According to Bloomberg, citing sources familiar with the matter, the agreement entails Riot providing 191 megawatts (MW) of critical IT capacity from its Rockdale, Texas campus. This landmark deal marks a significant step in Riot's transformation from a Bitcoin miner into an AI infrastructure services provider.

Under the terms of the agreement, Riot will supply services to Anthropic for a period extending through June 2048. The contract includes two optional five-year extensions, which, if exercised, could boost the total value of the deal to as much as $16.1 billion. Riot anticipates delivering the first 96 MW of capacity by December 2027, with the remaining 95 MW scheduled for June 2028. To support this large-scale infrastructure development, Morgan Stanley is providing $573 million in interim financing.

The news triggered a substantial surge in Riot Platforms' (RIOT) shares, which jumped between 14% and 25% in pre-market and after-hours trading following the reports. Analysts have lauded the agreement as "transformational" for Riot, leading several firms, including Bernstein, Citi, and H.C. Wainwright, to raise their price targets for the company. They noted that Riot is making clear progress in monetizing its data center assets. With this deal, combined with an existing contract with Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Riot's total contracted AI capacity at its Rockdale campus now stands at 241 MW.

This agreement is part of a broader trend observed within the Bitcoin mining industry, where many miners are pivoting their energy-intensive infrastructure to offer high-performance computing (HPC) and AI services. The escalating demand for AI technologies requires immense computational power and, consequently, significant energy, making mining companies with established power infrastructure attractive partners. Anthropic itself has been actively securing computing resources, having previously signed large-scale deals with companies like SpaceX and Volta.

Analysts and market observers emphasize the critical nature of such agreements for both AI companies to meet their rapidly expanding compute needs and for Bitcoin miners to diversify their revenue streams. Riot's strategic move has the potential to make its future growth less dependent on the volatile price fluctuations of Bitcoin. As capacity deliveries commence in 2027 and 2028, this transformation in Riot's financial performance is expected to become more evident.