Riot Platforms announced on November 4, 2026, the largest deal in its history: a 15-year lease of its entire Corsicana, Texas, campus to a frontier AI lab — identified in the company's Form 10-Q as Anthropic PBC, the developer of Claude. The agreement covers 910 MW of critical IT capacity and is expected to generate approximately $28 billion in contracted revenue over the initial term, or about $54 billion if both five-year extension options are exercised.
Under the powered land lease model, Riot keeps ownership of the land, power and site infrastructure, while Anthropic buys, installs and operates the computing equipment — and pays the electricity bill and nearly all operating costs. Average rent is estimated at about $1.8 billion per year, with a starting base rent of $130 per kW per month, rising 3% a year. Rent is owed on all 910 MW, whether or not the capacity is fully used.
What the lease covers
Delivery will come in three phases: 400 MW in September 2027, 200 MW in January 2028 and 310 MW in July 2028. Riot estimates total project capital of about $5.5 billion, or $6 million per MW, and says it will reimburse the tenant up to $4 million per MW for the data center modules it installs — up to about $3.6 billion in total. If financing for those reimbursements is not available on acceptable terms, the lease provides for rent credits bearing 12% annual interest.
The Corsicana lease was signed on October 28 and took effect on November 4, after approval by Riot's board and technical consultants. Combined with the 191 MW Rockdale lease, also with Anthropic, and a 50 MW contract with AMD, Riot now has 1,151 MW under contract, worth about $38 billion in data center revenue.
Read also: Google investe US$ 15 bilhões em data centers de IA na Malásia and SpaceX já constrói 3,6 GW de data centers de IA.
Riot's pivot to AI
The deal marks the pivot of Riot, a former bitcoin miner, toward AI infrastructure. In the third quarter of 2026, the company reported revenue of $181 million, net income of $4 million and adjusted EBITDA of $191 million — and sold 20,264 bitcoins between January and September for about $1.5 billion to fund the expansion. Its holdings fell from 11,380 BTC in June to 2,418 BTC on September 30.
CEO Jason Les called the lease the largest in Riot's history. What remains to be seen is whether the company can deliver the capacity on schedule and raise the financing without diluting shareholders — Riot says it raised no equity in 2026 and does not expect to do so for the announced projects.
Image credit: photo of the Corsicana campus, published by Riot Platforms on its official website.
Sources: Riot Platforms Q3 2026 earnings call transcript (Motley Fool); Bitcoin Magazine — Riot Names Anthropic As Tenant In $28 Billion Texas Lease; Data Center Feed; Riot Platforms — Our Campuses.
Transparency: this article was produced with the help of artificial intelligence, based on public posts on X and sources from the internet, and reviewed against the original sources cited. Always consult the original sources to confirm the details.
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