What happened: Riot Platforms (RIOT) stock surged 9% in early trading on Tuesday.
What’s behind the move: The bitcoin mining company, which has pivoted toward selling data center capacity, signed a deal with a major AI developer, widely reported to be Anthropic (ANTH.PVT), in a transaction valued at $9.1 billion.
“Today’s announcement of a landmark 20-year, 191-megawatt data center lease with a leading frontier AI lab marks a defining moment in our evolution into a leading developer of large-scale data centers,” Riot CEO Jason Les said in the company’s earnings release.
Riot also reported second quarter revenue of $174 million, up 14% year over year, driven by growth in its data center and engineering businesses.
20.24 +0.84 (+4.33%)
At close: August 11 at 4:00:00 PM EDT
What else you need to know: Riot Platforms and other bitcoin miners have increasingly leaned into leasing data center capacity as the crypto industry navigates a “winter” and demand for computing power has skyrocketed.
In January of this year, Riot announced its first major deal with AMD (AMD) at its campus in Rockdale, Texas.
Year-to-date, Riot stock is up 37%.
Ines Ferre is a senior business reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on X at @ines_ferre.
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