Riot Platforms, Inc.

Anthropic has hired former Google executive Amir Salek to join its compute team as the AI lab lays groundwork for an in-house semiconductor initiative, according to Bloomberg. Salek, who led Alphabet's custom silicon efforts and delivered seven generations of Tensor Processing Units, will report to Anthropic compute lead James Bradbury. The move underscores Anthropic's push for proprietary hardware architecture amid scarce data center infrastructure, even as it continues buying chips from Nvidia, Amazon, and Google. Anthropic recently outlined an initial $250 million commitment to UK chip firm Fractile and secured additional data center capacity through deals with Riot Platforms and Volta Infra Holdings. Salek joins from Cerberus Capital Management, where he served as senior managing director after leaving Google in 2022.

Crypto-linked stocks rallied Friday as Bitcoin extended its climb to levels not seen since late May, after President Trump called on lawmakers to pass clear regulatory rules for digital assets. In U.S. premarket trading, Strategy was up 10.2%, Coinbase rose 6.8%, and Circle Internet Group added 6.4%, while MARA Holdings climbed 5.4%, Galaxy Digital rose 5%, Robinhood Markets gained 4.7%, Hut 8 advanced 2.4%, and Riot Platforms rose 3.7%. Bitcoin jumped 8.9% to $78,135.60, briefly touching an intraday high of $79,600.60, breaking out of the roughly $60,000-to-$70,000 range that held for most of 2026. The rally was also supported by a broader lift in risk appetite after the U.S. Treasury Department said it would double its bond buybacks in an effort to contain rising yields, following a sharp bond selloff that drove the 30-year yield to its highest level since 2007. The advance was set in motion earlier this week when Trump, speaking at a White House summit, urged Congress to advance the Clarity Act, closely watched legislation aimed at establishing a regulatory framework for the U.S. crypto industry, though it remains unclear when, or if, the bill will pass.

Riot Platforms struck a $9.1 billion, 20-year computing deal with Anthropic this week, leasing 191 megawatts of power at its Rockdale, Texas campus, with the potential to grow to $16.1 billion if extended twice by five years each. The deal follows Riot's earlier agreement with AMD, giving the site what Compass Point analyst Michael Donovan called a two-tenant campus carrying $9.8 billion of contracted data center revenue. Riot's second-quarter revenue beat expectations at $174.2 million versus the $154.3 million analysts modeled, and Donovan reiterated a buy rating with a $29 price target. CleanSpark signed its own 20-year, $6.6 billion triple-net lease at its Sandersville site with a high investment-grade tenant, though its fiscal third-quarter revenue fell 30.5% year over year to $138.0 million and it swung to a $239.8 million net loss. Both companies are shifting from bitcoin mining to renting power and data center space to AI firms, but neither has yet proven the model can fully replace mining as the core business.

JPMorgan estimates Anthropic agreed to pay roughly $2.4 per watt per year for capacity at Riot Platforms' Texas data center, about 33% above the firm's estimated industry average of $1.8 per watt per year. The pricing insight comes from JPMorgan's analysis of Riot's newly signed 191-megawatt data center lease with Anthropic, with the base 20-year agreement expected to generate approximately $9.1 billion in total contract value and two optional five-year extensions increasing the potential value to $16.1 billion. Riot plans to deliver the first 96 megawatts of capacity by December 2027 and the remaining 95 megawatts by June 2028. JPMorgan believes the premium reflects tightening supply-demand dynamics for AI infrastructure, particularly sites with existing grid access and near-term delivery timelines, and noted that Riot's Corsicana campus is under a non-binding letter of intent covering its full 756 megawatts. The key question is whether Anthropic's pricing proves to be an outlier or the beginning of a broader repricing across the AI infrastructure market.

The Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF has surged 97% over the past year even as bitcoin fell 46%, driven by miners pivoting to multi-billion-dollar AI infrastructure leases. Core Scientific signed a 15-year AMD lease worth more than $14 billion in base contracted revenue across 530 megawatts, while IREN inked a five-year, $3.4 billion NVIDIA cloud contract plus a NVIDIA investment of up to $2.1 billion. Riot Platforms layered a 20-year, 191-megawatt lease with a frontier AI lab, pushing total contracted data-center revenue to $9.8 billion. The fund's bull case now rests on 15-year AI leases rather than hash rates, with hyperscaler capex from NVIDIA, AMD, and Microsoft driving performance more than bitcoin. Investors wanting direct bitcoin exposure should use a spot bitcoin ETF like iShares Bitcoin Trust instead of WGMI, which now behaves as an AI infrastructure landlord rather than a crypto proxy.

Riot Platforms will sell 4,300 BTC and direct the proceeds toward expanding its data center network for AI workloads, according to a recent SEC filing. The move confirms that the largest miners are moving away from the strategy of passively accumulating cryptocurrency.

Riot Platforms has signed a 20-year deal with Anthropic, the company behind Claude, to provide 191 megawatts of data-center capacity at its Rockdale, Texas site, in an agreement worth about $9.1 billion in estimated revenue. The deal could reach approximately $16.1 billion if two five-year extensions are exercised. Riot entered the announcement with a market value of about $7.3 billion and reported total revenue of $647.4 million in 2025. The company had previously signed a data-center contract with Advanced Micro Devices for 25 megawatts, later doubled to 50 megawatts, and reported $33.2 million of data-center revenue in the first quarter. Riot says its Rockdale facility has about 700 megawatts of developed capacity and its portfolio includes almost 2 gigawatts of fully certified power.

Riot Platforms has entered a 20-year, $9.10 billion agreement to lease 191 megawatts of IT capacity at its Rockdale, Texas campus to a leading AI lab, marking a major pivot toward AI infrastructure. The deal was announced alongside second-quarter 2026 results showing revenue of $174.24 million and a net loss of $237.17 million, which included nearly $27.97 million in impairment charges. Bitcoin production rose to 1,587 coins during the quarter. The lease directly addresses prior concerns about underutilized power capacity and could reduce the company's dependence on volatile bitcoin mining revenue.

Wedbush analyst Matt Bryson says a reported 191-megawatt data center agreement between Anthropic and Riot Platforms reinforces the durability of AI spending and could prove particularly positive for Advanced Micro Devices. Riot Platforms, historically a Bitcoin miner, announced a 20-year deal this week to provide 191 megawatts of capacity to a leading frontier AI company reported to be Anthropic, with 96 megawatts expected by December 2027 and the remainder by June 2028. Bryson noted that Riot has now leased 241 megawatts in total, having already delivered 25 megawatts to AMD with another 25 megawatts under construction, and sees continued data center build-outs as a sign of durable AI demand with positive implications for the broader hardware universe. The AMD angle is notable because Anthropic and AMD already announced a much larger strategic partnership in July, under which Anthropic plans to deploy up to 2 gigawatts of AMD Instinct MI450-series GPUs, with the first gigawatt scheduled to begin deployment in the first half of 2027. AMD's data center revenue reached 6.7 billion dollars in the second quarter, up 107 percent year over year, and the company expects third-quarter revenue of about 13 billion dollars, plus or minus 300 million dollars.

Needham raised its price target on Riot Platforms to $30 from $28.50, implying a 54.6% upside from the August 10 close of $19.40, after the company signed a 20-year data center lease with AI lab Anthropic. The 191-megawatt lease at Riot's Rockdale campus is expected to generate approximately $9.1 billion in total contract revenue over the initial term, with two five-year extension options that could bring the total potential contract value to roughly $16.1 billion. Needham reiterated a buy rating on the stock. Riot also reported second-quarter 2026 revenue of $174.2 million, including $23.2 million from data centers, while Bitcoin mining revenue fell to $113.7 million and the company posted a GAAP net loss of $237 million.

Rocket Lab shares fell as much as 5.7% after the company's Neutron rocket timeline softened, with an analyst noting that while Neutron remains on track to reach the launch pad in the fourth quarter, an initial launch could be pushed to 2027. Riot Platforms struck a $9.1 billion, 20-year deal with Anthropic to supply 191 megawatts of AI data center capacity from its Rockdale, Texas campus. Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises rose in premarket after signing an agreement with Siemens Energy to produce steam turbine generator sets. US-listed shares of On Holding dropped as much as 17% in premarket trading after the Swiss sneaker maker's second-quarter sales came in lower than expected.

Terrestrial Energy reported second-quarter progress that expanded its commercial-project pipeline to 7.8 gigawatts and improved estimated lifetime unit economics. The company announced a relationship with Riot Platforms targeting up to 4 gigawatts of IMSR capacity for data centers, with the potential to initially use natural-gas systems before transitioning to nuclear generation. Estimated cumulative lifetime revenue per IMSR unit increased to $2.7 billion from $2.1 billion, and blended gross profit margin rose to 33% from 22%. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved the company's methodology report, and Terrestrial Energy signed agreements with Texas A&M and Zachry Nuclear to evaluate a potential IMSR site at the RELLIS campus. The company held $283.4 million in cash and investments at quarter-end, with second-half cash burn expected to rise as development activities accelerate.

Bitcoin's main competitor for investor attention has shifted from Ethereum to the AI trade, as capital flows out of crypto and into semiconductor stocks. U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs lost more than $3.1 billion through June 5, while the four largest semiconductor ETFs attracted over $21 billion, according to Reuters. Kalshi traders see a 58% chance Bitcoin falls below $55,000 by year-end and only an 11% chance it reclaims $100,000 before 2027. The Wall Street Journal reported that individual traders and hedge funds have sold Bitcoin to buy AI stocks, and even Bitcoin miners like Riot Platforms are pivoting, signing roughly $9.8 billion in data center deals to support AI infrastructure.

U.S. stock futures were little changed on Tuesday, as fading hopes for a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz kept oil prices elevated, while investors looked ahead to key U.S. inflation data for fresh clues on the Federal Reserve's interest rate path. Riot Platforms shares surged 18.3% in premarket trading after the company landed a $9.1 billion, 20-year AI data center contract with Anthropic, marking one of the largest deals yet to link the cryptocurrency mining industry with the rapidly expanding AI infrastructure market. NIQ Global Intelligence shares surged 15.2% after delivering a broad second-quarter earnings beat and raising its full-year outlook, with adjusted EPS of $0.27 versus a $0.21 consensus and revenue of $1.12 billion edging past expectations of $1.11 billion. On Holding shares fell 15.2% after reporting second-quarter net sales of CHF 850.3 million, below the roughly CHF 881 million analysts had expected, as management pointed to a more difficult consumer environment and higher U.S. tariff costs. Rocket Lab shares dropped 9% despite record second-quarter revenue of $234 million, as third-quarter GAAP gross margin guidance of 29% to 31% came in well below the Street's estimate of about 37.6%. Hims & Hers Health shares fell nearly 7% even after better-than-expected revenue and a raised full-year forecast, as investors focused on profitability pressures from expansion into branded GLP-1 weight-loss drugs and international markets.

Several stocks made notable premarket moves on Thursday. Riot Platforms surged nearly 20% after second-quarter revenue of $174.2 million exceeded the $154.3 million FactSet consensus, and the crypto miner announced a 191-megawatt data center lease deal with a Leading Frontier AI Lab. Hims & Hers Health fell 6% after trimming the upper end of its full-year EBITDA outlook and posting a net loss of 37 cents per share for Q2, versus a profit of 17 cents a year earlier. Intel edged lower after upsizing a common stock offering to $20 billion from $15 billion for general corporate purposes. Plug Power rallied 13% on a smaller-than-expected second-quarter loss, while First Solar gained more than 3% after Baird upgraded the stock to outperform and raised its price target to $318, citing a strong utility-scale market. Cardinal Health moved nearly 2% higher as adjusted earnings of $2.60 per share beat the $2.42 estimate, though revenue of $63.67 billion missed the $65.15 billion consensus, and full-year EPS guidance topped expectations.

Several stocks made significant moves on Tuesday, driven by earnings reports and major business developments. Riot Platforms shares jumped 19% after the Bitcoin miner secured a 20-year, 191-megawatt data center lease with Anthropic, expected to generate $9.1 billion in initial revenue through June 2048, with extension options potentially raising the total to $16.1 billion. Plug Power climbed 8% as the hydrogen fuel-cell company reported better-than-expected second-quarter results, achieved near breakeven gross margin, and raised its 2026 revenue growth target to 15% to 16%. Rocket Lab shares plunged 9% despite record second-quarter revenue of $234.1 million and strong third-quarter guidance, as investors focused on weaker margin expectations and continued losses. Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises surged 41% after topping Wall Street expectations and raising its 2026 profitability target, while Upwork tumbled 20% on a slight earnings miss and significantly weaker guidance.

U.S. stock futures were little changed early Tuesday as investors weighed renewed Middle East tensions, higher oil prices, and AI sector developments ahead of key inflation data. Dow futures slipped 51 points, or 0.1%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures were broadly flat. President Donald Trump rejected Iran's demand for reparations, dimming prospects for a peace deal and keeping the Strait of Hormuz effectively closed, which pushed Brent crude up 1.8% to $89.34 a barrel. Intel raised $20 billion through an upsized share offering priced at $95 per share, a 2.6% discount, selling 210.5 million common shares with a 30-day option for underwriters to buy up to 31.6 million more. Riot Platforms surged over 20% in extended trading after Bloomberg reported that Anthropic signed a $9.1 billion long-term deal for 191 megawatts of computing capacity at Riot's Texas campus, with potential total sales reaching $16.1 billion if extension options are exercised. Nvidia confirmed an AI infrastructure initiative with Apollo, BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, and KKR to mobilize over $500 billion in third-party capital, though its shares fell more than 2%. The Reserve Bank of Australia unanimously held its benchmark rate at 4.35%, as expected, but cautioned that elevated inflation and higher fuel prices from the Iran conflict could keep further hikes in play.

Bitcoin fell 1.7% to $64,026.3, pressured by fading hopes for a US-Iran deal and additional Bitcoin sales by Strategy Inc, the world's largest corporate Bitcoin holder. Strategy disclosed it sold 1,690 Bitcoin for a total of $109 million, while raising an additional $653.1 million through the sale of 6.69 million common shares. The proceeds will be used to repurchase 1.15 million preferred shares. This marks the company's fifth sale this year, leaving it with 840,447 Bitcoin. Meanwhile, Bitcoin miner Riot signed a $9 billion deal with Anthropic to provide AI computing power over 20 years, offsetting losses from its mining business and sending Riot shares up nearly 25% in after-hours trading. Ether fell 2.8% to $1,873.81, and XRP dropped 2.6%.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune moved to advance the Clarity Act, which would establish the first comprehensive federal regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies, setting up a key procedural vote in mid-September. The legislation would define when digital assets are treated as securities or commodities and clarify which federal regulators have jurisdiction, addressing years of industry calls for clearer rules. Republicans would need at least eight Democratic votes to reach the 60-vote threshold, with Democrats seeking additional restrictions on crypto holdings by government officials amid concerns over President Trump's family's digital asset ventures. The crypto industry spent more than $119 million supporting candidates in the 2024 election cycle, and passage could reduce regulatory uncertainty for exchanges and asset managers while increasing competitive pressure on banks if stablecoin providers are allowed to offer rewards on holdings.

Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on bitcoin miners transitioning to AI infrastructure providers, arguing that companies with large, grid-connected power assets are well positioned to benefit from surging demand for AI data centers. The brokerage assigned Overweight ratings to Hut 8 Mining and Riot Platforms, while giving Applied Digital an Equal-weight rating. It named Hut 8 its top pick with a $263 price target, implying about 141% upside, citing its strong portfolio of power assets and high-quality AI infrastructure leases. Riot Platforms received a $36 price target, with Morgan Stanley highlighting its large pipeline of powered sites, including the Corsicana and Rockdale campuses, as attractive for AI data center leases. Applied Digital was given a $36.50 price target, with the firm noting that lower returns on invested capital relative to peers and financing risks temper upside potential despite a sizable contracted AI data center lease portfolio. Morgan Stanley estimates that U.S. data center developers could still face power shortages through 2028 even if all major bitcoin mining sites are repurposed for AI workloads.

Needham sees the AMD-Anthropic deal increasing the likelihood that Riot Platforms secures additional leases at its Rockdale data center. AMD announced that Anthropic will use up to 2 gigawatts of its AI chips, with the first gigawatt deploying in the first half of 2027, and AMD will invest up to $5 billion in Anthropic tied to deployment milestones. Needham said AMD's larger commitment raises the probability it exercises rights covering another 150 megawatts at Riot's Rockdale site, where 50 megawatts are already contracted, potentially bringing AMD's total footprint to 200 megawatts. The bank maintained a Buy rating and $28.50 price target on Riot, based on 21 times discounted 2028 adjusted EBITDA, and noted Riot is separately marketing its Corsicana, Texas, campus with about 1 gigawatt of capacity.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the Clarity Act is at the '1-yard line', urging Congress to pass the landmark bill before recess, which sent bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies higher on Tuesday. Bitcoin rose 2.08% to $66,559, Ethereum added 1.00% to $1,922, and Dogecoin gained 1.62% to $0.073. Crypto stocks surged, with Cipher Digital up 18.01% to $24.24, Coinbase Global up 11.70% to $179.20, Riot Platforms up 8.64% to $21.62, Robinhood Markets up 8.58% to $107.80, MARA Holdings up 8.10% to $12.62, Circle Internet Group up 7.90% to $70.62, Hut 8 up 7.81% to $108.81, CleanSpark up 7.66% to $15.53, Bullish up 6.83% to $24.24, Figure Technology Solutions up 6.31% to $32.34, Bakkt up 5.22% to $8.26, IREN up 4.71% to $42.10, Gemini Space Station up 4.33% to $4.70, and Strategy up 3.67% to $101.41.

Hut 8 shares jumped 10% to $100.58 after the company signed a second 15-year, $9.8 billion lease that fully commercializes its 1-gigawatt Beacon Point AI data center campus in Texas. The existing high-investment-grade tenant doubled its contracted footprint to 704 megawatts, bringing the campus base-term contract value to $19.6 billion and as much as $50.2 billion if all renewal options are exercised. The total contracted portfolio value across Beacon Point and River Bend now reaches $26.6 billion, with expected average annual net operating income above $1.75 billion. Peer miners rallied in sympathy, with Marathon Digital up 8% to $11.57 and Riot Platforms up 4% to $19.03, while the WGMI Bitcoin-miner ETF rose 8% to $51.58. The sector gains came even as Bitcoin traded slightly lower, signaling the move is driven by AI infrastructure enthusiasm rather than crypto beta.

Riot Platforms' modeled fair value has been revised slightly higher from $28.55 to $29.50 per share, driven by analyst support for its power-backed AI and high-performance compute plans. Several firms, including BTIG, Clear Street, Keefe Bruyette, Bernstein, Needham, and Citi, have raised their price targets, citing secured power, data center buildout, and growing interest in power-backed compute infrastructure as key drivers. Keefe Bruyette and Needham highlighted confidence in Riot's data center team and tier 3 capacity plans following site visits to Corsicana, while Bernstein updated its valuation framework to explicitly include the AI infrastructure business. However, Jefferies initiated coverage with a Hold rating and a $24 price target, flagging the lack of a large AI data center deal so far and cautioning on execution and deal timing risks. The fair value model adjustments include a slight decrease in forecast revenue growth from 23.68% to 23.29%, an increase in assumed net profit margin from 11.87% to 12.11%, a rise in the future P/E multiple from 101.27x to 103.77x, and a shift in the discount rate from 8.81% to 8.88%.

Riot Platforms is the better stock pick for 2026 over Hut 8, according to a Motley Fool analysis, as both companies transition from Bitcoin mining to AI and high-performance computing data centers. Riot trades at a forward P/E of 20.9x and a price-to-sales ratio of 11.7x, compared to Hut 8's 84.8x and 36.7x, respectively, and holds over $900 million in Bitcoin versus Hut 8's roughly $675 million. Hut 8 reported fiscal 2025 revenue of nearly $235.1 million, up 45%, but swung to a net loss of approximately $226.1 million, while Riot posted revenue of nearly $647.4 million, up nearly 72%, with a net loss of roughly $663.2 million. Both companies' losses were largely driven by mark-to-market declines in Bitcoin holdings, and each faces risks from power grid constraints and execution challenges in their AI pivots. Riot's cheaper valuation and larger Bitcoin reserves make it the preferred choice, though analysts' long-term revenue projections remain highly speculative.

Stock futures edged higher on Monday as traders returned from the long weekend, with crypto-related stocks, Tesla, and United Microelectronics among the biggest movers. United Microelectronics rose 6% after reporting June revenue climbed 22.9% year-over-year to NT$23.1 billion, while first-half 2026 revenue increased 11.3% to NT$129.8 billion. Crypto stocks rallied as Bitcoin topped $63,000 for the first time in two weeks, lifting Strategy by 5% and pushing Circle Internet Group, Riot Platforms, Marathon Digital, Coinbase, and HIVE Digital Technologies up more than 3% each. Tesla gained 2% after expanding its Robotaxi service to Miami, building on last month's Austin launch and following record second-quarter deliveries of 480,126 vehicles. Kosmos Energy surged 5% on strong operational momentum, including the J76 well in Ghana adding about 20,000 barrels of oil per day and lifting Jubilee production above 85,000 barrels per day, while the company reduced net debt by more than $400 million since year-end 2025 to $2.56 billion.

Wall Street analysts are raising price targets on Riot Platforms, citing growing confidence in its data center business. Keefe Bruyette lifted its target from $23 to $37 with an Outperform rating, noting the company's access to power and pre-secured equipment, and increased confidence after visiting the Corsicana facility. Clear Street raised its target to $38 from $26 with a Buy rating, pointing to AI and HPC opportunities. Riot Platforms operates Bitcoin mining and data center services.