Riot Platforms Surges on $9.1 Billion AI Deal With Anthropic

Riot Platforms shares jumped as much as 20% Tuesday after the bitcoin miner signed a $9.1 billion compute agreement with AI developer Anthropic. Under the deal, Riot will supply 191 megawatts of capacity from its Rockdale, Texas campus to support Anthropic's AI workloads, with two extension options that could lift the total contract value to $16.1 billion.

The agreement is the latest and largest sign of bitcoin miners repositioning themselves as AI infrastructure providers, converting power-rich mining campuses into data center capacity for compute-hungry AI firms. Peers such as IREN and Applied Digital rose about 2% in sympathy, though the rally was concentrated in Riot itself.

Analysts responded quickly: Bernstein raised its price target on Riot to $35, arguing the deal creates a clear scale-up path, while Citi lifted its target to $32 and called the agreement transformational for the company's earnings profile.