Riot Platforms signs $28 billion, 910MW AI lease at Corsicana

Riot Platforms has signed a 910MW IT capacity contract worth $28 billion with an unnamed frontier AI lab, covering the entirety of its Corsicana data center campus in Navarro County, Texas. The deal could expand to $54 billion if the customer exercises two five-year extension options on the fifteen-year triple-net lease.

For context on scale: $28 billion over fifteen years averages roughly $1.9 billion per year from a single site, and 910MW is more than double the capacity of most hyperscale campuses currently under construction in North America.

What does the contract cover?

The lease takes the whole Corsicana facility, located roughly 50 miles southeast of Dallas. Delivery to the customer is phased:

• 400MW in September 2027
• 200MW more in January 2028
• The final 310MW in July 2028

Riot CEO Jason Les said the agreement, combined with an AMD contract and an earlier lease with the same frontier AI lab at Rockdale, gives Riot 1.1GW of contracted data center capacity and approximately $38 billion of contracted revenue. He said the company expects this to generate more than $2 billion of average annual net operating income at full deployment.

Why the structure matters as much as the scale

Les framed the economics for investors directly. "With total capital costs of approximately $6 million per IT megawatt, the Corsicana development will require about half the capital of a Tier 3 build while significantly limiting procurement, development, and ongoing operational risk to Riot," he said.

That translates to roughly $5.5 billion of capital cost for the full 910MW. Les said the lower requirement means Riot does not currently anticipate issuing equity to fund announced projects, and that contracted cash flows will be allocated "to whichever use creates the most value per share, whether that is our development pipeline or returning capital to shareholders."

A triple-net lease shifts taxes, insurance and maintenance costs to the tenant, which reduces Riot's operational exposure on the site.

How does this fit Riot's pivot from Bitcoin?

Riot, formerly Riot Blockchain, ranks among the world's largest Bitcoin miners but has pivoted toward AI and high-performance computing data centers since 2024. The Corsicana campus currently dedicates 400MW to Bitcoin mining, capacity that now appears set to transition to the AI customer.

In May 2026, Riot disclosed a $400 million two-story data center build at Corsicana totaling 335,430 sq ft (31,160 sqm), with construction running from April 2026 to May 2028. When the company acquired a further 238 acres at the site, plans allowed for up to 11 buildings and 672MW, with headroom to reach 1GW.

Riot's other Texas site, Rockdale, hosts AMD on a 50MW lease and Anthropic on a recently signed 191MW agreement. In Kentucky, Riot owns two operational sites totaling 60MW after acquiring Block Mining in July 2024; these could exceed 300MW at full build-out. Greenpeace has previously accused Riot of running the largest and among the most energy- and carbon-intensive Bitcoin mining operations in the US.

What did Q3 earnings show?

Riot also reported third-quarter results alongside the contract announcement. Total revenue reached $181.4 million, up marginally from $180.2 million a year earlier. Bitcoin mining contributed $116 million, while data center revenue came in at $18.4 million — a gap that shows how far the AI business must still grow to match the mining segment.

With the first 400MW scheduled for delivery in September 2027 and construction at Corsicana running through May 2028, Riot's transformation from Bitcoin miner to contracted digital infrastructure developer will be tested on a fixed, disclosed timeline.