Anthropic Just Gave This Bitcoin Miner a Contract Bigger Than the Whole Company

AI by TierneyMJ via Shutterstock

Riot Platforms (RIOT) is a Bitcoin (BTCUSD) miner turned artificial intelligence (AI) high-performance computing company. Riot has been essentially using its experience with GPUs and data centers as a Bitcoin miner to slingshot itself into an AI neocloud, and it seems to be working.

Riot signed a deal with Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) in January 2026 for a 25 megawatt lease at Rockdale, with $311 million in contracted revenue over 10 years. AMD doubled this in April — and those numbers are peanuts compared to what happened on Aug. 10.

Earlier this month, Riot signed a 20-year lease for 191 MW at Rockdale for a “leading frontier AI lab” believed to be Anthropic. Expected rent is about $9.1 billion, or $16.1 billion if the tenant renews twice. Capacity is due in two parts — 96 MW in December 2027 and the rest by June 2028. Morgan Stanley will lend Riot up to $573 million to “fund initial development costs.”

Riot Platforms' current market capitalization is close to $7.5 billion, so this deal is larger than the whole company. Let's take a closer look.

Why Anthropic Signed the Deal and What Riot Gets

Anthropic has been actively shopping for compute, which isn't much of a secret. This year, it became clear that AI companies were desperate for compute when both Alphabet (GOOGL) and Anthropic signed a contract with SpaceX's (SPCX) AI division. Anthropic has agreed to pay SpaceX $1.25 billion monthly through May 2029.