Riot Signs $9.1B AI Lease for 191 MW at Rockdale

Riot’s 191 MW Rockdale Lease Runs to 2048

The $9.1 billion figure is expected revenue over the initial 20-year term, not upfront cash or a current valuation. Riot said the term runs through June 2048 and includes two tenant-controlled five-year extensions that could take the aggregate potential contract value to about $16.1 billion.

Riot estimated cumulative net operating income of $7.3 billion to $8.2 billion over the base term, or annual NOI of $365 million to $411 million. Those are company estimates, and the release says the facility is still subject to the normal buildout, financing and operating requirements of a high-density data center.

The location supplies the bridge from crypto mining to AI infrastructure. Mining sites already require heavy electrical infrastructure, land, operations teams and grid relationships. AI tenants need those inputs as well, but also require data-hall construction, cooling, network connectivity and steady uptime over a lease term.

Riot said Rockdale has a fully approved interconnection and that the delivery schedule will use that existing power access. That separates this announcement from a preliminary powered-land proposal, though it does not mean the 191 MW is already online or producing lease revenue.

The company also said the new deal follows the AMD lease announced in January. The existing AMD build is at an earlier stage: Riot reported it had delivered the first 25 MW on time and on budget, while a second 25 MW expansion remained under construction.

Morgan Stanley Facility Funds the First Rockdale Buildout

The $573 million interim facility is an important qualifier to the headline value. Riot said Morgan Stanley will fund initial development costs while an investment-grade credit backstop is completed, making financing execution part of the project timeline rather than a settled detail.

That is the key distinction in the mining-sector rework. A long-term customer agreement can give a powered site a contracted-revenue profile, but construction must still be financed before the capacity is delivered and rent begins. Riot’s own figures indicate the first revenue from this agreement is tied to phased deployment starting late next year.

Riot remains exposed to Bitcoin even as it builds the second business line. Its 1,587 BTC mined in the quarter and $49,912 average mining cost show the mining operation still supplies a material operating baseline, while the data-center lease is intended to add more predictable revenue over time.

The comparison with TeraWulf’s $19 billion Anthropic lease is useful but limited. Both announcements show AI developers seeking powered infrastructure from former or current Bitcoin miners. Riot has disclosed capacity, term, expected revenue, delivery dates and interim financing, but has not named its tenant in the primary documents.

Riot’s AI Pivot Still Depends on Delivery Dates

The lease gives Riot a clear benchmark investors can track: 96 MW by December 2027 and 191 MW by June 2028. It does not disclose the detailed pricing schedule, the final credit-support structure, the construction budget beyond the interim facility or the tenant’s identity.

That leaves the company with a stronger contracted story than a generic AI-data-center ambition, but also with execution milestones that span nearly two years before full capacity is due. The MARA plan for a 2 GW Texas campus shows the wider race for power sites, where a land or capacity headline is only an early stage before a customer can use a completed facility.

Crypto sentiment remained cautious while the announcement landed. The Crypto Fear and Greed Index read 29, or Fear, on Aug. 11, down from 30 the day before. The indicator measures Bitcoin-market sentiment, not demand for data centers, but it captures the market backdrop against which miners must fund long construction cycles.

The next disclosures to watch are the final tenant confirmation, the credit backstop, construction spending, delivery of the first 96 MW and whether Riot turns its stated contracted capacity into billed revenue on schedule. Until then, the verified development is a signed $9.1 billion, 191 MW lease, not a completed AI campus.