Anthropic signs $9.1 billion, 20-year AI cloud deal with Bitcoin miner Riot Platforms for Texas data centre capacity
Anthropic has signed a $9.1 billion, 20-year agreement with Bitcoin mining company Riot Platforms to secure artificial intelligence data-centre capacity, highlighting the growing scramble among
Anthropic has signed a $9.1 billion, 20-year agreement with Bitcoin mining company Riot Platforms to secure artificial intelligence data-centre capacity, highlighting the growing scramble among AI companies to lock in computing infrastructure as demand for generative AI services accelerates. Under the agreement, Riot will provide 191 megawatts (MW) of computing capacity from its Rockdale campus in Texas to Anthropic. Riot had disclosed the long-term agreement on Monday with an unnamed “leading frontier AI” company. Bloomberg later identified the customer as Anthropic, citing people familiar with the matter. The contract is expected to generate about $9.1 billion in revenue for Riot through June 2048.
It also contains two five-year extension options, which could take the total potential value of the agreement to $16.1 billion. The 191 MW capacity is roughly equivalent to the electricity consumption of 143,000 homes at any given time. Anthropic races to secure computing capacity The deal comes as Anthropic expands its infrastructure commitments to keep pace with demand for its Claude AI products. The company said in May that its annualised revenue had crossed $47 billion and that its latest $65 billion funding round would help expand computing capacity to meet rising demand. Also Read | NVIDIA partners with 6 giants for $500 billion AI infrastructure push Anthropic has increasingly turned to external infrastructure providers to secure the computing power required to train and operate frontier AI models.
The company has also entered into other large-scale computing arrangements in recent months, reflecting how access to power, data centres and advanced computing hardware has become a critical constraint for AI developers. The scale of these commitments underscores a shift in the economics of AI. Companies are no longer competing only on model capabilities but are also racing to secure the physical infrastructure needed to deliver those models at scale. Bitcoin miners pivot towards AI data centres For Riot, the agreement marks another step in its transition from a business centred on Bitcoin mining towards high-performance computing and AI infrastructure. Bitcoin miners have increasingly sought to repurpose their large power supplies and data-centre sites for AI workloads as demand for computing infrastructure rises.
Their existing access to power and large-scale facilities can make them potential partners for AI companies looking to expand capacity. Riot's shares rose sharply in after-hours trading after the Anthropic connection became known, gaining about 25% to $24.40. The company has also reported growth from its data-centre business, indicating that AI infrastructure is becoming an increasingly important part of its strategy.
The BriefWire