Shares of Riot Platforms (RIOT) rose almost 9% Wednesday after activist investor Starboard Worth LP launched a letter urgent the corporate to speed up its transition from bitcoin mining to AI infrastructure supplier. The goal is for Riot to pursue high-margin synthetic intelligence and high-performance computing (AI/HPC) internet hosting offers.
Riot’s 1.7 gigawatts of totally out there energy capability make the corporate “properly positioned to execute high-quality AI/HPC offers,” stated Starboard, highlighting two of Riot’s Texas-based websites, Corsicana and Rockdale, as “premier” areas for information heart growth.
Starboard stated that if Riot can monetize its energy in keeping with latest transactions within the area, “it might generate greater than $1.6 billion” in annual EBITDA. The group praised Riot’s latest take care of AMD, which is projected to yield $311 million over 10 years.
With a market cap of $4.25 billion, Texas-based Riot is the fifth-largest bitcoin mining firm within the U.S. Its shares have risen by 19% previously yr, however stay decrease by about 80% from highs hit in the course of the 2021 bitcoin bull market. They’ve additionally underperformed miners like IREN, Cipher Mining, and Hut 8, which have been faster to acknowledge and transition to AI methods.
Starboard was Riot’s fourth-largest shareholder as of the tip of final yr, and this is not its first push on the corporate. In December 2024, Starboard requested that Riot convert a few of its bitcoin mining websites into information facilities able to internet hosting HPC machines to assist huge tech firms.
Whereas Riot Platforms has constructed its enterprise round bitcoin mining, the pivot towards AI infrastructure might diversify income as power-hungry fashions like OpenAI’s GPT-4o and others drive information heart demand. Riot’s energy entry, a uncommon commodity within the present energy-constrained information heart market, could possibly be used to lease capability to main AI companies.
Starboard urged CEO Jason Les and Government Chairman Benjamin Yi to behave “with urgency” and place Riot as a long-term infrastructure supplier for AI workloads.
