Bitcoin miner Riot Platforms has signed a 191-megawatt knowledge heart lease with an unnamed frontier AI lab that it expects to generate about $9.1 billion of gross contract income over a 20-year base time period.
Development money should arrive a lot sooner: the first 96 MW is predicted to turn out to be obtainable in December 2027, when preliminary lease is predicted to begin, and the remaining 95 MW is due in June 2028. The plan nonetheless treats Bitcoin gross sales as a supply of development fairness earlier than lease begins.
Riot initiatives $2.1 billion to $2.3 billion of capital spending for the construct and assumes that 80% to 90% will come from long-term undertaking debt. That debt will not be disclosed as closed. The projected stack leaves $210 million to $460 million of fairness funding earlier than an anticipated $180 million refinancing tied to its AMD deployment would cut back the estimated fairness must $30 million to $280 million.
The primary bridge is a $573 million interim facility administered by Morgan Stanley Senior Funding. It’s meant for long-lead gear and improvement prices, bears curiosity at SOFR plus 2.75% and matures on Oct. 15, 2026, topic to restricted extension in specified refinancing circumstances. The submitting doesn’t say your complete facility was drawn or unconditionally obtainable. Riot additionally says an investment-grade credit score backstop is being finalized, with out disclosing its supplier, quantity, situations or completion.
Bitcoin gross sales stay within the development finances
Riot’s presentation identifies continued Bitcoin gross sales from its stock as the first supply for knowledge heart fairness spending. No particular future sale is assured, and Riot had not disclosed a post-quarter sale via Aug. 11, however administration’s plan treats the treasury as a funding supply.
At June 30, Riot reported 11,380 Bitcoin, with 5,821 pledged in opposition to a completely drawn $200 million Coinbase Credit score facility. That put 51.2% of its holdings below restriction, whereas 5,559 Bitcoin weren’t categorised as restricted. Riot additionally bought 9,665 Bitcoin for $732.5 million in the course of the first half of 2026.
Its mining economics sharpen the treasury query with out exhibiting money prices per coin above manufacturing worth. Cost to mine one Bitcoin excluding miner depreciation was $49,912 within the second quarter, or 69.6% of the $71,667 manufacturing worth. Together with depreciation, the determine rose to $90,631, or 126.5% of manufacturing worth.
The including-depreciation measure was 26.5% above manufacturing worth. However depreciation is a non-cash expense on mining {hardware}, not a variable price that Riot can keep away from by quickly curbing machines. The comparability due to this fact exhibits all-in accounting price above manufacturing worth, whereas Riot’s excluding-depreciation price remained beneath it.
The lease affords a big income path after capability is delivered. Two extensions, every managed by the tenant, might carry projected gross contract income to about $16.1 billion provided that each are exercised. Till lease scales, Riot nonetheless wants financing that isn’t but closed and continued Bitcoin gross sales for fairness, leaving a near-term treasury trade-off inside its long-term AI technique.
