Riot Platforms jumps 20% on $9.1 bln AI deal with Anthropic

Riot Platforms Inc. surged more than 20% in pre-market trading on Monday after announcing a 20-year agreement valued at $9.1 billion with AI startup Anthropic.

The deal, which includes a $2.5 billion upfront payment and potential future payments tied to performance milestones, marks a strategic shift for the bitcoin mining company toward AI infrastructure revenue. The agreement covers the deployment of high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure to support Anthropic’s AI model training and inference workloads.

Analysts noted the transaction reflects broader industry trends as crypto miners diversify revenue streams amid declining bitcoin mining profitability. The long-term contract provides Riot with a stable income source independent of volatile cryptocurrency prices, while Anthropic gains access to specialized computing capacity.

Riot’s shares, which had traded flat in regular sessions last week, extended gains to 21% in pre-market activity following the announcement. The company operates one of the largest bitcoin mining facilities in the United States, with a fleet of approximately 200,000 ASIC miners.

The deal underscores the growing convergence between crypto mining infrastructure and AI compute demand, as hyperscale cloud providers and AI startups increasingly seek dedicated HPC solutions. Riot’s management highlighted the agreement as a cornerstone of its transition to a diversified technology infrastructure provider.