Riot Platforms, Anthropic strike $28 billion Texas AI campus deal
Riot Platforms, known for crypto mining, is teaming up with AI firm Anthropic in a huge $28 billion partnership.
Riot will provide land and power (910 megawatts) at its Texas campus so Anthropic can run its AI operations.
The deal is set to bring Riot average annual rent of about $1.8 billion over the next 15 years once everything is running.
Riot project costs about $5.5 billion
Building all this isn't cheap: the project will cost about $5.5 billion.
Riot's putting in $1.8 billion for the site and electrical setup, plus reimbursing Anthropic up to $3.6 billion for construction costs.
Instead of selling new shares, Riot is covering most expenses by taking out loans and even selling 20,264 bitcoin (worth $1.5 billion) this year to help fund everything, with the first Corsicana capacity due in June 2027 and capacity arriving in phases through July 2028.