AUSTIN — Anthropic has signed a 20-year agreement with Riot Platforms to secure 191 megawatts of computing capacity at the cryptocurrency miner’s data center campus in Rockdale, Texas, in a deal Riot said is expected to generate about $9.1 billion in contract revenue.
Riot disclosed the agreement on Aug. 10, identifying the customer only as a “leading frontier AI lab.” Multiple reports subsequently identified the customer as Anthropic, the artificial intelligence company behind the Claude family of models. Riot has not publicly named Anthropic in its disclosure, and Anthropic has not publicly confirmed the deal in the sources reviewed.
The initial lease runs for 20 years through June 2048, according to reports on the agreement. It also includes two five-year extension options that could increase the total contract value to about $16.1 billion if exercised.
The agreement underscores Riot’s effort to expand beyond Bitcoin mining into high-performance computing and data-center services. The company’s Rockdale campus, in central Texas, has been developed around its access to substantial power and data-center infrastructure, assets that have become increasingly valuable as AI companies seek additional computing capacity.
Riot already has a relationship with chipmaker AMD, which signed a data-center lease at Rockdale earlier this year. AMD announced in July that Anthropic would use up to 2 gigawatts of its AI accelerators, with initial deployments expected in the first half of 2027. Analysts have said that expanding AI workloads could increase demand for data-center capacity from operators such as Riot.
The Anthropic agreement also reflects a broader shift among cryptocurrency miners toward AI infrastructure. Companies with large power supplies and existing data-center sites have increasingly sought to repurpose or expand those facilities for AI and other high-performance computing workloads as demand for specialized computing capacity grows.
Riot’s shares rose sharply after the agreement was disclosed, with reports citing gains of more than 20% in early trading following the announcement.
Riot’s disclosure said the lease covers 191 megawatts of critical IT capacity at Rockdale and represents roughly $9.1 billion of expected revenue over the initial term. The company has not publicly disclosed further details about the customer beyond describing it as a leading frontier AI laboratory.
