Anthropic Signs $9.1 Billion Power Deal With Bitcoin Miner Riot Platforms

AI lab Anthropic has entered into a massive long-term agreement to lease data center capacity and power infrastructure from Bitcoin miner Riot Platforms. The deal underscores a growing convergence between cryptocurrency infrastructure and the urgent energy needs of generative AI.

The agreement provides Anthropic with 191 MW of capacity at Riot Platforms' Rockdale data center in Texas. Valued at approximately $9.1 billion over a 20-year term, the contract includes options for extensions that could potentially increase the total value to $16.1 billion. Deployment of the site will occur in two phases: 96 MW is expected to launch in December 2027, with the remaining 95 MW following by June 2028. To support initial development costs, Morgan Stanley is providing an interim loan of $573 million.

A Strategic Pivot for Crypto Infrastructure

For Riot Platforms, the deal represents a significant shift from pure cryptocurrency mining toward commercial AI infrastructure. This pivot is driven in part by pressure from activist investors, including Starboard Value, to diversify revenue streams and reduce the company's reliance on the volatile price of Bitcoin.

Riot is increasingly leveraging its existing power grid and land assets to attract high-compute tenants. The Anthropic agreement is not the company's first foray into this market; Riot previously leased capacity at the Rockdale site to chipmaker AMD under an initial 10-year lease valued at $311 million. This transition reflects a broader trend of energy-heavy industries repurposing their assets to serve the AI boom.

The Power Bottleneck

This partnership highlights the extreme scarcity of power-ready land required for AI training and inference. As AI labs scale their models, the primary bottleneck has shifted from chip availability to electrical capacity. By partnering with Bitcoin miners—who already possess the necessary permits and high-voltage connections—AI companies can bypass years of utility negotiations and construction delays.

Anthropic is aggressively securing compute capacity globally to maintain its competitive edge. In addition to the Texas deal, the company previously signed a separate $10 billion compute agreement with Volta Infra for capacity located in Norway.

What to Watch

Industry analysts will now monitor whether other major Bitcoin mining operations follow Riot's lead in converting sites into AI hubs. While the Rockdale deployment is scheduled through 2028, the speed of these conversions will likely dictate how quickly AI labs can expand their training clusters. It remains to be seen if this trend will lead to a permanent decoupling of Bitcoin mining from traditional energy hubs in favor of dedicated AI data center parks.