IA en un minutoNewsBusiness and products
Riot Leases Its Corsicana Campus to Anthropic and Gives It a Veto Over Voluntary Power Cuts
IA en un minuto newsroom · Editor: Jon Elgezabal
In 30 seconds
Riot Platforms is handing Anthropic its entire Corsicana campus in Texas, with 910 MW, for 15 years, in a deal it values at $28 billion, roughly. Anthropic pays for all of that capacity, used or not, on top of the electricity it consumes. Riot commits not to reduce its supply without Anthropic's approval, unless the grid orders it on a mandatory basis.
Riot Platforms, a company in bitcoin mining and data centers, has leased its whole Corsicana campus in Texas to an AI lab. Its November 4 earnings release does not say which one, but the quarterly filing it submitted to the SEC (10-Q) names the tenant: Anthropic.
The deal lasts 15 years and spans 910 MW of capacity for computing equipment. It is a triple-net arrangement: the tenant picks up taxes, insurance, site costs and whatever electricity it draws. Riot puts the total value at roughly $28 billion and the average yearly rent at roughly $1.8 billion, charged on all 910 MW even if they sit idle. Anthropic holds two five-year extension options; if it takes both, the value would climb to roughly $54 billion, according to Riot.
Riot provides the land, the electrical network and pads already hooked up to power, which it builds and maintains at its own expense, while Anthropic installs and runs its own compute modules. According to the quarterly filing, base rent is $130 per kW per month and goes up 3% every year. The contract was signed on October 28 and came into force on November 4, once Riot's board had approved it.
The 10-Q also contains a clause on energy: without Anthropic's permission, Riot cannot reduce the tenant's power or sign the site up for voluntary demand-response programs. The only exceptions are cuts that the utility or the grid operator imposes on a mandatory basis. Riot makes part of its revenue from exactly that with its bitcoin mining: it stops the machines and resells the energy when the grid needs it, and in the third quarter the credits from those cuts added up to $24.7 million. The filing also warns that ERCOT, the Texas grid operator, may limit Corsicana's consumption if other large users in the area raise theirs, although it has not done so yet.
Delivery will come in stages: 400 MW in September 2027, 200 MW in January 2028 and 310 MW in July 2028. Riot will begin charging rent on each stage within 60 days, at most, of handing over its powered pads. The first block of the first stage is planned for June 28, 2027. Anthropic was already a Riot tenant at Rockdale, also in Texas, where it signed a 191 MW lease in August; between that one, Corsicana and the AMD contract, Riot now has 1,151 MW leased out.
Why it matters · analysis and opinion
A bitcoin mining company leasing an entire campus to an AI lab says a lot about where the money is heading: today a guaranteed supply is worth more than the flexibility to switch machines off when electricity gets expensive. The clause on cuts is the other side of that bet. Riot swaps variable income for steady rent and, at Corsicana, gives up the tool it used to lower its power bill. For Anthropic, what matters is not only having capacity but also that no third party gets to switch it off. Two unknowns remain: the Texas grid, which can impose limits no contract can prevent, and the timeline, since most of the capacity has yet to be built.
Official source: Riot Platforms · Written with the help of AI: how we make the news
