Riot Platforms rises on activist push to accelerate AI data center pivot
Shares of major crypto miner Riot Platforms jumped as much as 5.6% in premarket trading Wednesday after activist investor Starboard Value urged the company, in a letter seen by Bloomberg, to accelerate its shift from bitcoin mining toward AI-focused data center operations.
As one of the largest Bitcoin-mining companies in the US, Riot operates large mining campuses in Texas with 1.7 gigawatts of available power, making them prime real estate for hyperscalers. Last year, competitors like Cipher Digital and TeraWulf had drawn heavyweight backing, including investments from SoftBank and Google.
Starboard, Riot’s fourth-largest shareholder with a position of some 12.7 million shares, estimates the firm could generate over $1.6 billion in annual EBITDA if it can lease its power capacity at rates competitive with recent AI data center deals. In Starboard’s latest 13F filing, the company revealed it had added another 3.9 million shares, taking its total ownership to around 3.12% of shares outstanding.
In January, Riot confirmed a major lease deal with Advanced Micro Devices at its Rockdale facility, with an initial 10-year term lease, worth an estimated $311 million in contract revenue.
As one of the largest Bitcoin-mining companies in the US, Riot operates large mining campuses in Texas with 1.7 gigawatts of available power, making them prime real estate for hyperscalers. Last year, competitors like Cipher Digital and TeraWulf had drawn heavyweight backing, including investments from SoftBank and Google.
Starboard, Riot’s fourth-largest shareholder with a position of some 12.7 million shares, estimates the firm could generate over $1.6 billion in annual EBITDA if it can lease its power capacity at rates competitive with recent AI data center deals. In Starboard’s latest 13F filing, the company revealed it had added another 3.9 million shares, taking its total ownership to around 3.12% of shares outstanding.
In January, Riot confirmed a major lease deal with Advanced Micro Devices at its Rockdale facility, with an initial 10-year term lease, worth an estimated $311 million in contract revenue.
