Riot Platform (RIOT) signs first data center lease with AMD
Riot Platforms (RIOT) said on Friday that it had acquired 200 acres of land in Texas and signed a lease with Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD), its first data center customer.
The company said the fee simple acquisition of 200 acres of land at the Rockdale site in Milam County, Texas was for $96 million. Riot had previously been operating on the Rockdale site as part of a long-term ground lease.
Riot said that by acquiring the land, it is "ensuring long-term growth and operational stability within the county’s business-friendly jurisdiction."
The company paid for the land through a sale of 1,080 bitcoin.
The agreement with AMD, a semiconductor hyperscaler, begins with an initial deployment of 25 MW of critical IT load capacity to be delivered in phases beginning in January 2026 and completing in May 2026. The deal includes the potential for additional expansion of up to a total of 200 MW of critical IT load capacity, Riot said.
The deal is worth approximately $311 million of contract value across the initial 10-year term for 25 MW of critical IT load capacity, and about $1 billion of contract value if all three five-year extension options are exercised by AMD.
Riot CEO Jason Les noted in a statement that its fully approved data center power portfolio has now been expanded to 1.7 gigawatts, and said the deal with AMD "firmly establishes Rockdale as a leading data center development opportunity."
“This partnership represents a validation of Riot’s infrastructure, development capabilities, the attractiveness of our sites, our readily available power capacity, and our ability to offer innovative solutions to meet the requirements of top-tier tenants," Les added.
While a number of bitcoin miners have pivoted away from the crypto space to focus on AI data center infrastructure and HPC services as BTC mining has become increasingly less profitable, Riot is actually doubling down on both its mining and AI businesses.
The company announced earlier this month that it had mined 460 BTC in December, an 8% increase over its production in November. And by using its BTC holdings to fund its land purchase in Texas, Riot is showing how it can use one line of business to support the expansion of its other one.
"We are incredibly excited to collaborate and grow with AMD, one of the most significant hardware manufacturers in the world and a key leader in the AI ecosystem," Les said. "These results mark a pivotal moment that cements Riot’s position as a leading data center developer, less than twelve months since the launch of our formal process to evaluate our assets for AI/HPC use."
Riot's stock surged 16.1% on Friday following news of the AMD deal. It has rallied nearly 52% to begin the new year.
With its latest land purchase, Riot now owns and manages over 1,100 acres across two facilities in Texas, separated by approximately 100 miles.
The company said it has an "unrivaled, leading position" in what is known as the "Texas Triangle," which is a formation of the major urban centers of Texas bounded by Austin, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio.