Riot sold 20,264 bitcoin to fund AI data center build

Riot Platforms sold 20,264 bitcoin this year for about $1.5 billion and Hut 8 sold 3,102 BTC since July to fund $250 million of share repurchases, the two miners confirmed alongside Wednesday's third-quarter results. Bitcoin Magazine reported both sales. Riot finished September with 2,418 BTC, worth about $202 million at the quarter-end price of $83,554, down from 18,005 at the start of the year.

Riot put its proceeds into data center construction and repaid a $200 million Coinbase credit facility in full, which released all pledged coins. It raised no equity in 2026. Hut 8's sales funded buybacks of its own stock.

An allocator holding Riot shares as a bitcoin proxy is now also underwriting a lease counterparty. The company's bitcoin treasury is down to 2,418 BTC, about 13% of its Jan. 1 level, and revenue from the new campus begins with deliveries scheduled between September 2027 and July 2028.

The lease runs 15 years, triple-net, and covers all 910 MW of Riot's Corsicana, Texas campus, described in the announcement as critical IT capacity. It is worth about $28 billion over the initial term at an average annual rent of about $1.8 billion. The tenant is described only as a "Frontier AI Lab." Combined with its AMD contract and an earlier Rockdale lease to the same tenant, Riot has leased 1,151 MW for about $38 billion; CEO Jason Les put expected net operating income above $2 billion a year at full deployment, according to the company release.

Riot's own outlay is bounded. Capital cost is about $6 million per MW, half a typical Tier 3 build, of which Riot funds $2 million for site work and power; the tenant covers the rest, reimbursed from non-recourse project debt after each phase is delivered.

Selling ran all year: 3,778 bitcoin in the first quarter, about 2.5 times production, 4,300 in the second and 12,186 in the third. Mining continues behind it. Riot produced 1,637 BTC in the quarter at an average cost of $39,265 before depreciation, while mining revenue fell 28% to $116 million as the average price dropped to $70,855 from $114,361 a year earlier. Total revenue was $181.4 million, flat year over year.

Hut 8 reported about 16,787 BTC across the parent and its majority-owned American Bitcoin on Sept. 30, worth $1.4 billion, of which $697.4 million was attributable to Hut 8 itself, before October sales reduced the parent's share.