Riot sells 10,599 BTC in Q3 and signs $28 billion AI data center lease

What happened

Riot Platforms sold 10,599 BTC during the third quarter of 2026, according to the company's November 4 report, as reported by CoinGape and U.Today. The sales reduced Riot's bitcoin holdings from 11,380 BTC at the end of June to 2,418 BTC at the end of September, a decline of roughly 79%.

The miner produced 1,637 BTC over the same period, meaning its quarterly sales far exceeded its mining output. Since the start of 2026, Riot has sold 20,264 BTC for about $1.5 billion, with most of the proceeds directed toward data center construction as the company broadens beyond mining.

Alongside the quarterly results, Riot announced a 15-year lease for 910 megawatts of IT capacity at its Corsicana, Texas campus. The agreement is valued at approximately $28 billion, with average annual rent of about $1.8 billion. CEO Jason Les described it as the largest lease in the company's history, according to CoinGape.

U.Today reported that the counterparty is Frontier AI Lab (Anthropic), while CoinGape described it only as an unnamed AI lab. The lease is structured as a triple-net arrangement in which the tenant supplies and maintains its own computing equipment, which Riot said cuts construction costs by roughly half compared with standard Tier 3 data centers.

Why it matters

The quarter illustrates a broader shift in Riot's business model. Mining revenue fell nearly 28% year over year to $116 million, while total revenue rose 1% to $181.4 million, helped by $18.4 million from data center operations and $47 million from engineering. Net income dropped to $4.03 million from $104.5 million a year earlier.

With the Corsicana deal, Riot says it has now leased 1,151 megawatts of capacity, representing about $38 billion in long-term contracted revenue. Those figures are payments expected over the lease terms rather than funds already received. Riot also said it currently does not expect to issue equity to finance the projects, a point U.Today linked to the triple-net structure and the reduced construction burden.

What the data shows

Riot ended September with $748.2 million in cash and $202 million in bitcoin assets. U.Today reported that the company fully repaid its $200 million credit line with Coinbase, recovering 5,821 BTC that had been pledged as collateral, and ended the quarter with $950.2 million in free liquidity including cash and remaining bitcoin.

The company's average bitcoin mining cost fell to $39,265 from $46,324. The estimated capital cost for the Corsicana project is $5.5 billion. Riot targets delivery of an initial 400 megawatts in September 2027, another 200 megawatts in January 2028, and the remaining 310 megawatts in July 2028, with construction deliveries expected across 2027 and 2028.

The Corsicana agreement follows an earlier $9.1 billion AI data center project at Rockdale covering 191 megawatts over 20 years. RIOT shares traded at $15.49, up about 14% on Wednesday, extending an 18.41% rally from the previous session, according to CoinGape.

Background

Riot has been repositioning its power capacity toward high-performance computing and AI infrastructure as bitcoin mining margins come under pressure from lower cryptocurrency prices. In August, JPMorgan raised its price target on RIOT after the company announced another major data center agreement, CoinGape reported.

What to watch

U.Today noted that Riot's remaining 2,418 BTC could also be sold in the fourth quarter to help finance the Texas construction. Investors will also be watching whether the Corsicana delivery schedule holds and whether the company maintains its stated intention to avoid issuing equity.

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