American mining company Riot Platforms has entered into a 20-year data center lease and service agreement, securing 191 MW of critical IT capacity at the Rockdale campus in Texas, with one of the leading AI labs. The agreement is effective until June 2048 and is expected to generate revenue of approximately $9.1 billion over the initial term. With two five-year extension options, the total contract value could reach roughly $16.1 billion.
According to Bloomberg citing sources familiar with the matter, the counterparty in the deal is Anthropic, the developer of the Claude neural network. Riot Platforms did not name the lessee in its official release, and Anthropic has not publicly commented on the deal.
Second Quarter Results: Bitcoin Sales and Loss
The agreement was revealed against the backdrop of Riot Platforms' financial results for the second quarter of 2026, ended June 30. During this period, the company sold about 4,300 bitcoins — the proceeds were used to fund operational activities and capital expenditures for data center expansion. The quarter ended with a GAAP net loss of $237.2 million, compared to a positive net profit of $219.5 million a year earlier.
Riot Platforms mined 1,587 bitcoins during the quarter — an 11% increase from 1,426 $BTC a year earlier. However, the average cost to mine one coin excluding depreciation rose to $49,912 compared to $48,992 in the second quarter of 2025. Despite the increase in mining volume, revenue from Bitcoin mining decreased by 19.3% year-over-year — to $113.7 million from $140.9 million. The company's total revenue, however, grew by 14%, to $174.2 million, due to a $23.2 million contribution from the data centers segment.
At the end of the quarter, Riot Platforms had 11,380 $BTC on its balance sheet, of which 5,821 $BTC were pledged as loan collateral. Based on the Bitcoin price of $58,527 as of June 30, 2026, the value of these assets was estimated at approximately $666 million. The company's liquid assets exceeded $1.2 billion, including $548.9 million in cash, of which $77.5 million were restricted funds.
The second quarter showed that Riot Platforms' classic mining business is facing revenue pressure even as production increases, while a net loss replaced last year's profit. Meanwhile, the contract with Anthropic opens a multi-year revenue stream for the company independent of Bitcoin price and mining costs.
AI Opinion
From the perspective of data-driven analysis, Riot Platforms' deal fits into a broader industry trend: Bitcoin miners are massively converting power capacity into assets for the AI industry. According to Bernstein's analysis, over the past two years, miners have contracted about 7 gigawatts of capacity with hyperscalers and AI cloud providers in deals worth over $135 billion across 19 transactions — the contract with Anthropic is far from the only one: in early July, TeraWulf signed a similar 20-year agreement for 401 MW at a campus in Kentucky.
The economics of this transition are not free: building AI data centers to meet hyperscaler requirements requires significant borrowed capital, while the margin profile of classic mining remains under pressure from rising production costs. What will happen to the balance sheets of mining companies if the demand for AI computing slows down before long-term infrastructure commitments are paid off?
