Riot Platforms’ lease with Anthropic includes a provision that could require the Bitcoin miner to pay 12% interest on construction costs, a financing term tied to a project Riot plans to fund largely through debt.
Riot sold 20,264 Bitcoin (BTC) from January through September for about $1.5 billion. The company used the proceeds mainly for data-center construction and repayment of a $200 million loan from Coinbase. Riot held 2,418 BTC at Sept. 30 and expects to sell most of the Bitcoin it mines.
Riot estimates total project costs at about $5.5 billion, including $1.8 billion for its site and power work and up to $3.6 billion for Anthropic’s data-center facilities. Its financing plan assumes lenders will cover 80% to 90% of the costs, leaving Riot to contribute about $500 million to $1.1 billion in cash. Financing is expected to begin in 2027.
The lease covers 910 megawatts at Riot’s Corsicana site. Riot will provide the land and power infrastructure, while Anthropic installs and operates the computing equipment. Once all facilities are operating, Riot expects average annual rent of about $1.8 billion over the initial 15-year term.
John Kim
John Kim reports on the digital-asset business for TokenPost. Send corrections or tips to [email protected].
