Riot and Anthropic Sign $28 Billion Lease Agreement

Mining company Riot Platforms has entered into a 15-year agreement with Anthropic, the developer of the AI model Claude, for leasing data center infrastructure in Texas. The total contract value is estimated at $28 billion. Under certain conditions, Anthropic's construction expenses may be reimbursed with an annual interest rate of 12%.

The agreement was signed on October 28 and came into effect on November 4, 2026. It covers the Corsicana site with a capacity of 910 MW for AI computations. Riot will provide the land and power supply, while Anthropic will purchase, install, and operate the computing equipment. The start of power commissioning is scheduled for June 2027, with completion in July 2028. After the full commissioning of the facility, Riot expects an average annual rent of about $1.8 billion before accounting for possible offsets.

The cost of site preparation is estimated at approximately $5.5 billion: $1.8 billion for infrastructure and electrical work by Riot, and up to $3.6 billion for reimbursing Anthropic's allowable expenses on data center modules. The reimbursement amount will depend on actual costs and the capacity of the commissioned phases.

Conditions for the 12% rate

In the basic scenario, Riot plans to attract project debt for 80–90% of the expenses, or about $4.4–4.9 billion, leaving its own participation in the range of $0.5–1.1 billion. The financing process is planned to begin in 2027. If the company fails to secure financing on acceptable market terms, it will have to compensate Anthropic's expenses by reducing future rental payments. The offset amount will accrue an annual interest rate of 12% over the remaining lease term. This is a conditional mechanism, not an already incurred debt at 12% on the entire $28 billion amount.

Riot is financing the development of data centers, among other things, by selling bitcoins. From January to September 2026, the company sold 20,264 BTC for approximately $1.5 billion, including for investments in infrastructure and repayment of a $200 million Coinbase loan. As of September 30, 2,418 BTC remained on the balance sheet. Riot plans to sell almost all mined coins and does not currently plan to issue additional shares for the announced projects.

The size of net rental income after possible offsets, the cost of debt financing, and actual construction expenses will be determined as the project progresses.