Key Notes
- Riot signed a 15-year Corsicana lease covering 910 MW with an unnamed AI laboratory, worth about $28 billion before optional renewals.
- The project carries an estimated $5.5 billion capital requirement, with capacity scheduled for delivery from September 2027 through July 2028.
- Quarterly revenue rose about 1% to $181.4 million, while net income fell to $4 million as weaker bitcoin prices weighed on mining.
Riot Platforms (NASDAQ: RIOT) announced a 15-year AI infrastructure lease worth about $28 billion, giving investors a much larger long-term rental business to weigh against a sharp drop in quarterly profit.
The agreement covers 910 megawatts of critical IT capacity across the company’s Corsicana campus in Texas. Riot described the tenant as a leading frontier AI laboratory but did not identify it. Shares traded at $15.38, up 9.66%, at 20:47 UTC on November 4, according to CNBC’s quote data.
Riot’s announcement pairs the lease with third-quarter revenue of $181.4 million, up about 1%, and net income of $4 million, down from $104.5 million a year earlier. The company is selling bitcoin and developing powered sites as it moves toward a larger role in AI infrastructure.
A $28 Billion Lease With a Phased Delivery Schedule
The initial contract calls for about $1.8 billion in average annual rent, including contractual escalators. Its value would rise to approximately $54 billion if the tenant exercises both five-year extension options. That larger figure depends on renewals beyond the initial 15-year term.
Riot expects to deliver capacity in three stages:
- September 2027: 400 megawatts.
- January 2028: 200 megawatts.
- July 2028: 310 megawatts.
Rent for each phase is due to begin no later than 60 days after delivery of its powered pads. Riot supplies land and power infrastructure, while the tenant procures, installs, owns and operates the modular computing equipment. The triple-net structure places substantially all operating costs with the tenant, including power as a pass-through.
The lease charges rent on the full contracted capacity regardless of utilization. That provides more visibility than a business paid only for computing resources actually consumed, although Riot must still deliver the infrastructure on the agreed schedule.
The Construction Bill Is About $5.5 Billion
The company estimates a capital requirement of roughly $6 million per IT megawatt, or about $5.5 billion overall. Riot funds $2 million per megawatt for site work and electrical infrastructure and reimburses the tenant another $4 million per megawatt for module costs after each phase is delivered and paying rent.
Those reimbursements are expected to be financed with non-recourse project debt backed by contracted rent. If financing on comparable market terms is unavailable, the tenant can fund that portion and recover it through credits against future rent, according to the lease details.
That fallback reduces dependence on completing a financing transaction on a particular date, but it also changes the timing of the cash Riot retains. The $28 billion headline is revenue spread over years, not cash available today to pay for construction.
Across its data-center agreements, Riot has now leased 1,151 megawatts of critical IT capacity representing roughly $38 billion in contracted revenue. Management projects more than $2 billion in average annual net operating income once the portfolio is fully deployed. That property-level forecast is not current GAAP net income and does not account for every corporate or financing cost.
Mining Weakness Offsets Growth Elsewhere
The current quarter remains far smaller than those future rental projections. Bitcoin mining revenue fell about 28% to $116 million, even as production increased 16% to 1,637 bitcoin.
The average bitcoin price used in the operating comparison fell to $70,855 from $114,361 a year earlier. Higher output could not make up for the lower value of the coins produced, illustrating the exposure Riot is seeking to diversify.
Engineering revenue rose to $47 million from $19.1 million, while data centers contributed $18.4 million. Together, those businesses largely offset the decline in mining revenue. Adjusted EBITDA slipped about 3% to $191.3 million; it is a non-GAAP measure and should be read separately from the $4 million net profit.
The lease builds on Riot’s earlier AI infrastructure agreements, as we previously reported. Riot has not named the Corsicana tenant.
Bitcoin Sales Finance the Transition
During the first nine months of 2026, Riot sold 20,264 bitcoin for about $1.5 billion, primarily to fund data-center development. It ended September with 2,418 bitcoin and $748.2 million in cash, including restricted cash, for combined cash and bitcoin holdings of $950.2 million.
The company also repaid its $200 million Coinbase credit facility, releasing the bitcoin pledged as collateral. It said it had raised no equity in 2026 and did not currently anticipate needing to issue shares to fund its announced projects.
Riot is committing to new capacity at a time when financing and construction risks are under greater scrutiny across the sector, as we reported. Its first major Corsicana delivery is still scheduled for September 2027. Until then, the investment case rests on converting signed leases into powered sites and collecting rent on time.
