Riot Platforms, known until now as one of the largest bitcoin miners in the United States, has signed the biggest contract in its history as a data center developer: a 15-year lease of its entire Corsicana campus in Texas, with 910 MW of critical IT capacity, to an unnamed “frontier AI lab.” According to the company, the contract is worth about $28 billion over its initial term, with average annual rent of around $1.8 billion. It was announced on November 4, 2026, alongside its third-quarter results, for the period ended September 30.
Key points of the Riot Corsicana deal in 20 seconds
- 910 MW of IT capacity over 15 years for an unnamed AI lab.
- About $28 billion over the initial term, according to Riot.
- Deliveries between September 2027 and July 2028.
- Quarterly revenue of $181.4 million, still dominated by mining.
With this agreement, Riot now has 1,151 MW of contracted capacity and about $38 billion in long-term data center revenue. The total includes its contract with AMD and a lease signed this year in Rockdale with the same lab, whose capacity the announcement does not detail. The company estimates that, once everything is deployed, it will generate more than $2 billion a year in net operating income (NOI). These are the company’s own projections for contracts whose deliveries begin almost a year from now.
How the Corsicana contract works
It is a triple-net powered-land lease covering a 332-acre parcel. Riot provides the land, the electrical connection, and the high- and medium-voltage infrastructure, while the tenant installs, owns, and operates the compute modules and takes on most of the operating costs, including power. Rent is paid on the full 910 MW, regardless of how much of it is used. If the tenant exercises both five-year extension options, the total value would rise to about $54 billion.
Deliveries are staggered: 400 MW in September 2027, 200 MW in January 2028, and 310 MW in July 2028, with rent on each phase starting no more than 60 days after delivery. The planned investment is $6 million per MW, around $5.5 billion in total, which Riot presents as half the cost of a typical Tier III data center. The company is funding $2 million per MW for civil and electrical works from its own cash, and will reimburse the tenant for the remaining $4 million per phase using non-recourse project debt. If that debt cannot be raised on market terms, the tenant would advance the money and deduct it from the rent.
A quarter still propped up by bitcoin
The numbers still reflect the company Riot used to be. Third-quarter revenue was $181.4 million, up 1% year over year. Mining contributed $116 million, down from $160.8 million, because the average price of the bitcoin produced fell from $114,361 to $70,855, even as production rose 16% to 1,637 BTC. The engineering business, which builds custom electrical equipment for third-party data centers, grew from $19.1 million to $47 million. Data centers added $18.4 million, of which $10.2 million are tenant reimbursements for site preparation, in the first full quarter with the 25 MW delivered to AMD.
Net income for the quarter was $4 million, down from $104.5 million a year earlier, and over the first nine months of 2026 the company has accumulated a loss of $733.6 million. To fund the transition, Riot has sold 20,264 bitcoins so far this year for about $1.5 billion and has canceled its $200 million credit line with Coinbase. It ended September with $950.2 million in cash and bitcoin combined, with no capital raises in 2026, and its CEO, Jason Les, says he does not expect to issue shares to fund the announced projects.
Riot’s case follows the same path as other U.S. miners converting their power connections into AI capacity, the scarcest resource in the sector — Riot itself agreed to lease Anthropic 191 MW for $9.1 billion earlier this year. What remains to be seen is execution: the first block isn’t delivered until September 2027, and the tenant, on whom much of the contracted revenue depends, remains unnamed.
Frequently asked questions
Who is the Corsicana tenant?
Riot describes it as a leading frontier AI lab but does not reveal its name. It is the same lab that signed the Rockdale lease earlier this year.
When will the capacity be delivered?
In three phases: 400 MW in September 2027, 200 MW in January 2028, and 310 MW in July 2028.
How much did Riot earn in the third quarter of 2026?
$181.4 million, of which $116 million came from bitcoin mining and $18.4 million from data centers.
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This article is also available in Spanish: «Riot alquila 910 MW en Texas a un laboratorio de IA por 28.000 millones», on revistacloud.com.
