Mining company Riot signs $28 billion AI data center deal with Anthropic, may pay 12% annual interest

BlockBeats news, November 5 — Bitcoin mining company Riot Platforms has signed a 15-year agreement with Anthropic worth approximately $28 billion to provide 910 megawatts of data center capacity at its Corsicana campus in Texas, USA. Once fully operational, the deal is expected to generate average annual rental revenue of about $1.8 billion.

However, project construction costs are estimated at up to $5.5 billion, of which about $1.8 billion is for Riot's own site and power infrastructure buildout, and up to $3.6 billion is to reimburse Anthropic for data center facility construction costs. Riot plans to cover 80% to 90% of project costs through debt financing, with its own expected investment of approximately $500 million to $1.1 billion. The financing is scheduled to launch in 2027.

Notably, according to Riot's quarterly filings, Anthropic can recover eligible facility construction costs by offsetting future rent and earn 12% annual interest. This means Riot may need to bear billions of dollars in interest expenses corresponding to construction costs in addition to rent.

Riot has been continuously selling Bitcoin to finance its data center transformation. In the first nine months of 2026, the company sold a cumulative 20,264 BTC, cashing out approximately $1.5 billion. As of the end of September, it held only 2,418 BTC remaining and expects to continue selling nearly all newly mined Bitcoin going forward. The first batch of data center capacity is expected to be delivered in June 2027.