Riot Platforms Signs $28 Billion Corsicana Lease as Q3 Revenue Rises 1%

Riot Platforms (NASDAQ: RIOT) signed a 15-year powered-land lease covering its entire Corsicana campus, a transaction expected to generate about $28 billion of initial contract revenue and substantially expand the company’s data-center business. The agreement with an unnamed Frontier AI Lab covers 910 megawatts of critical IT capacity and includes two five-year extension options that could increase potential contract revenue to $54 billion.

The Corsicana agreement brought Riot’s contracted data-center capacity to 1,151 MW and its contracted data-center revenue secured during 2026 to $38 billion. The company expects its signed leases to generate about $2.3 billion of annual revenue and more than $2.2 billion of annual net operating income after full deployment, based on the assumptions in its presentation.

The new lease represents Riot’s largest move to monetize its power portfolio as a data-center platform while Bitcoin mining remains its main source of quarterly revenue. The tenant will procure, install and operate the modular computing infrastructure, while Riot will provide the land, powered pads and power-delivery infrastructure.

Corsicana deployment scheduled through July 2028

Riot expects to deliver the Corsicana project in three stages. The first 400 MW is scheduled for September 2027, followed by 200 MW in January 2028 and the final 310 MW in July 2028. Rent will begin as each powered pad is delivered, subject to a potential delay of as much as 60 days if the tenant’s modules have not been installed.

The triple-net, take-or-pay lease requires the tenant to pay rent on all 910 MW regardless of utilization and to cover actual utility costs and operating expenses. Riot estimated an average of $1.8 billion in annual rent over the initial term following full deployment, with a projected 99% NOI margin before amortization of reimbursements to the tenant. NOI is a non-GAAP measure that excludes items including capital expenditures, general and administrative expenses, depreciation and amortization.

Estimated project costs total $5.5 billion, or about $6 million per IT MW. That includes as much as $3.64 billion of reimbursements for tenant-owned modules and approximately $1.8 billion of site and electrical-infrastructure work.

Riot is considering two funding structures. One would use $4.4 billion to $4.9 billion of non-recourse project debt and $500 million to $1.1 billion of Riot cash. The alternative would allow the tenant to recover its module costs through rent credits, leaving Riot flexibility to finance site work with cash or debt. The company said it does not currently anticipate issuing equity to fund any announced project.

At Rockdale, Riot said construction of a separate 191 MW Frontier AI Lab deployment is progressing toward ready-for-service dates of December 2027 for the first 96 MW and June 2028 for the remaining 95 MW. Riot is also completing AMD’s expansion from 25 MW to 50 MW, with full delivery scheduled for May 2027. The company said the AMD work remains on time and on budget.

Quarterly revenue rises 1% as business mix shifts

Riot reported third-quarter revenue of $181.4 million, up 1% from $180.2 million a year earlier. Net income was $4 million, or $0.01 per diluted share, while adjusted EBITDA was $191 million.

Bitcoin mining remained the largest business, producing $116.0 million of revenue and $51.7 million of gross profit as defined by the company. Mining revenue declined from $160.8 million in the prior-year quarter, while production increased to 1,637 Bitcoin from 1,406. The average production value per Bitcoin fell to $70,855 from $114,361.

Riot’s cost to mine one Bitcoin, excluding miner depreciation, decreased to $39,265 from $46,324 a year earlier. The company received $24.7 million of power-curtailment credits, equivalent to $15,067 per Bitcoin mined, reducing its net power cost to 3.2 cents per kilowatt-hour. Deployed hash-rate capacity reached 44.9 exahashes per second at quarter-end, while utilization averaged 87%. Riot said elevated summer temperatures at Rockdale and Corsicana contributed to miner downtime.

Data-center revenue totaled $18.4 million, including $8.3 million of recurring operating-lease revenue and $10.2 million from tenant fit-out services. Operating leases generated an 80% gross margin, compared with 84% in the second quarter, while the lower-margin fit-out business produced a 6% gross margin. Total data-center gross profit rose sequentially to $7.2 million despite a 21% decline in revenue, reflecting the growing contribution from recurring rent.

Engineering revenue increased to $47.0 million from $19.1 million a year earlier and $37.3 million in the second quarter. Its gross margin was 15%, down from 28.2% a year earlier. Engineering backlog stood at $141.5 million, with more than 90% tied to the data-center sector. Riot said it is reserving some engineering capacity for its own data-center development.

Bitcoin sales support project funding

Riot ended September with $950 million of liquidity, consisting of $748 million in cash, including $79.2 million of restricted cash, and $202 million of Bitcoin. The company sold 20,264 Bitcoin for $1.5 billion during the first nine months of 2026 and used part of the proceeds to repay its $200 million Coinbase credit facility, releasing all pledged Bitcoin.

For the Rockdale and Corsicana developments, Riot estimated incremental project capital of $7.6 billion to $7.8 billion. Its illustrative financing plan assumes $6.1 billion to $7.0 billion of non-recourse project debt and a Riot cash contribution of $800 million to $1.5 billion, deployed as construction advances. Management said the financing market has become more selective amid higher interest rates and wider credit spreads, with lenders conducting deeper reviews of tenant credit, power availability and delivery records.

Execution remains subject to substantial uncertainty. Riot identified potential construction delays, supply-chain constraints, permitting and regulatory hurdles, financing availability, changes in leasing arrangements and the ability to attract and retain customers and project partners. Its Bitcoin operations also remain exposed to changes in network conditions, Bitcoin rewards, transaction fees and market prices. The company’s delivery schedules, contract values and projected NOI are forward-looking estimates rather than guarantees of future performance.