A bigger vote of confidence from Morgan Stanley
JPMorgan isn't alone in turning more positive. On Aug. 13, Morgan Stanley raised its own Riot target sharply, to $43 from $36, also keeping an Overweight rating.
That figure sits more than 100% above where the stock recently traded, though price targets reflect analyst estimates rather than guaranteed outcomes.
The optimism traces back to Aug. 11, when Riot announced a $9 billion, 20-year compute agreement with Anthropic, confirmed by CNBC's David Faber.
The deal leases 191 megawatts at Riot's Rockdale, Texas campus, giving Anthropic access to scarce, grid-connected power as demand for AI computing surges. It effectively repositions Riot from a bitcoin miner into an AI infrastructure landlord.
The agreement is expected to generate $9.1 billion in revenue over 20 years, rising to roughly $16.1 billion if extended by two additional five-year terms. Combined with the AMD lease, Compass Point analyst Michael Donovan noted Riot now runs a two-tenant campus carrying $9.8 billion in contracted data center revenue.
Popular on TheStreet Roundtable:
Why miners are being valued differently
Bitcoin mining stocks were once seen mainly as a leveraged bet on Bitcoin's price.
But as AI demand grows and crypto prices stay under pressure, investors increasingly value miners like Riot for their power capacity, data centers, and energy contracts, treating them as owners of digital infrastructure rather than simply producers of Bitcoin.
Related: Mark Cuban's new prediction has investors watching
This story was originally published by TheStreet on Aug 17, 2026, where it first appeared in the MARKETS section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
