Cloud Computing Shares Jump. Riot Platforms Surges over 11%; Hut 8 up over 7%; Nebius up over 5%; IREN up over 4%

Cloud computing shares jumped on Tuesday. Riot Platforms up over 11%; Hut 8 up over 7%; Nebius up over 5%; IREN up over 4%.

Riot Platforms rose 11%, the surge was driven by the announcement of a landmark 20-year, 191-megawatt data center lease agreement with frontier AI lab Anthropic, expected to generate up to $9.1 billion in total revenue.

The deal marks a pivotal strategic shift for Riot Platforms into AI-driven high-performance computing infrastructure. Notably, activist investor Starboard Value had previously urged the company to accelerate its AI data center transition earlier this year, highlighting its Corsicana and Rockdale facilities as top-tier AI/HPC hosting sites. The agreement represents substantial progress on that front.

Separately, the company reported Q2 results on the same day, posting an EPS loss of $0.68, significantly worse than the consensus estimate of a $0.28 loss — a 142.86% miss. However, revenue of $174.2 million beat the $152.064 million estimate. Market attention clearly shifted toward the long-term revenue visibility provided by the Anthropic contract rather than near-term earnings shortfalls.