Crypto miner Riot Platforms $RIOT ( ▲ 5.73% ) jumped in premarket trading after activist investor Starboard Value called on the company to speed up its pivot away from bitcoin mining and toward AI infrastructure. The fund argues Riot’s massive power footprint could be far more valuable serving hyperscale data centers than running mining rigs.
Starboard has been steadily building its stake, signaling confidence that a strategic shift could unlock significant shareholder value.
From mining bitcoin to renting electricity
Riot operates large Texas campuses with roughly 1.7 gigawatts of available power, a scarce asset in an era of AI-driven electricity demand. Starboard estimates the company could generate more than $1.6 billion in annual EBITDA by leasing that capacity at rates comparable to recent AI data center deals.
That idea is not purely theoretical. Rival miners Cipher Mining $CIFR ( ▼ 1.41% ) and TeraWulf $WULF ( ▼ 4.94% ) have already attracted heavyweight partners including SoftBank and Google $GOOGL ( ▲ 0.43% ) , validating the “power landlord” model for AI compute.
Early deals suggest the pivot is already underway
Riot confirmed a major agreement in January with Advanced Micro Devices $AMD ( ▼ 1.46% ) at its Rockdale facility, signing a 10-year lease expected to bring in about $311 million in contract revenue. For investors, that deal serves as proof that mining companies sitting on huge power reserves may be better positioned for the AI boom than for the volatile crypto cycle.
With energy now the true bottleneck of artificial intelligence, Riot’s future may depend less on bitcoin $BTC ( ▼ 1.62% ) prices and more on how quickly it can transform into a next-generation data center operator.