Bitcoin miner Riot’s shares jump 8% after expanding AMD data center deal, signaling AI pivot

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<a href="https://tech-oracle.com/btc-usd/">Bitcoin</a> miner Riot’s shares jump 8% after expanding AMD data center deal, signaling AI pivotMarkets

What to know:

  • AMD doubled its capacity at Riot’s Texas site to 50MW, with an option to expand to 150MW total, a deal expected to generate about $636 million over 10 years.
  • Riot secured better credit terms, lowering its rate to 6.15% and reducing pledged BTC collateral, a sign of growing lender confidence in its non-mining business.
  • Shares are up 8% on Friday.

Riot Platforms (RIOT) stock rose roughly 8% on Friday after Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) increased its resources at Riot’s facility in Rockdale, Texas. This demonstrates Riot’s ongoing shift away from solely focusing on bitcoin mining and towards artificial intelligence and powerful computing.

AMD increased its committed power capacity with Riot to 50 megawatts, with the possibility of expanding it to 150 megawatts, based on first-quarter financial results. Riot estimates this agreement could bring in approximately $636 million over the next ten years.

Riot negotiated better terms on a $200 million loan from Coinbase that’s backed by bitcoin. They lowered the interest rate from 8.3% to a fixed 6.15% and were able to release 1,544 bitcoin that they had pledged as collateral. This suggests lenders are becoming more confident in Riot’s growing data center operations.

Investors are willing to pay more for the stock, likely due to the recent agreement with AMD and better loan terms. According to Matthew Sigel, head of digital assets research at VanEck, the market believes these factors will lower the company’s borrowing costs, as lenders are becoming more confident with the expanded AMD partnership.

Riot was unique among bitcoin mining companies because it focused solely on mining, while most others started renting out their data centers for artificial intelligence computing. However, a recent push from investor Starboard is now encouraging Riot to also shift towards providing infrastructure for AI.

The company, based in Castle Rock, Colorado, seems to be benefiting from its decision to grow its data center business to include computers used for artificial intelligence.

The company announced $167.2 million in revenue for the quarter ending March 31st, an increase from $161.4 million the previous year. This growth was boosted by $33.2 million in revenue from new data centers. However, revenue from bitcoin mining decreased to $111.9 million from $142.9 million, primarily because of falling bitcoin prices and tougher competition. Despite the drop in mining revenue, the company’s stock has risen approximately 147% over the past year, while bitcoin’s value has decreased by nearly 17%.

The company, formerly holding onto all of its mined bitcoin, is now selling it more quickly. They sold 3,688 BTC in the first three months of the year, according to Bitcoin Treasuries. As of the end of March, they held 15,679 BTC and had $282.5 million in cash.

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2026-05-02 00:11