Riot Stock Jumps 13%: Anthropic Is the Tenant Behind the $28 Billion Lease

Riot Platforms (NASDAQ: RIOT) closed Friday, November 6 up 13.21% at $16.71 — the biggest move on the US market board heading into the weekend — after investors connected the shares to a 15-year, roughly $28 billion lease at its Corsicana, Texas campus, and to a filing that names the tenant: Anthropic, the maker of Claude.

What happened

Riot announced the lease with its third-quarter results on November 4, but its press release named no tenant, calling the counterparty only a “leading Frontier AI Lab.” The company’s quarterly report on Form 10-Q, filed the same day, is more specific: a Riot subsidiary signed the lease on October 28 “with Anthropic PBC (the ‘Frontier AI Lab’),” and the deal became binding on November 4 after board approval and sign-off on the technical specifications.

The lease is a 15-year triple-net powered land lease covering the whole Corsicana campus — 910 megawatts of critical IT capacity on a contiguous 332-acre parcel. Riot puts the total contract value at about $28 billion over the initial term, or about $1.8 billion in average annual rent. If Anthropic exercises both five-year extension options, the total could reach about $54 billion. CEO Jason Les called it the largest lease in Riot’s history.

Why it is blowing up

The naming matters because Anthropic is not just the Corsicana tenant. The 10-Q uses the same “Frontier AI Lab” term for the tenant of Riot’s 191 MW lease at Rockdale, Texas, signed in August. That makes Anthropic the counterparty on 1,101 MW of the 1,151 MW Riot has now contracted, with AMD holding the other 50 MW. Across all three leases, Riot says it has contracted about $38 billion of data-center revenue.

Friday’s share move finished a week in which that story overtook Riot’s mining results. The stock opened at $15.83, traded between $14.87 and $17.12, and closed at $16.71, up $1.95 from Thursday’s $14.76 close, on volume of about 44.6 million shares. Other Bitcoin-linked names also rose on Friday, with CleanSpark up about 8.5% and MARA up about 8.1% in market snapshots, but Riot led the board.

The key facts

The rent: Base rent starts at $130 per kilowatt per month and rises 3% a year. Riot will provide the land, power infrastructure and powered pads; Anthropic will procure, own and operate the modular compute equipment and pay utility and operating costs under the triple-net structure.

The build: Capacity is due in three phases — 400 MW first, then 200 MW, then 310 MW — with deliveries running through July 2028. Riot estimates total project capital of about $5.5 billion, roughly $6 million per IT megawatt, and says it does not currently anticipate issuing equity to fund its announced projects.

The catch in the filing: Riot agreed to reimburse Anthropic up to $4 million per megawatt for the data-center modules the tenant installs — up to about $3.6 billion across the full 910 MW. That reimbursement depends on Riot raising money on terms it finds acceptable. If that financing is not available, the 10-Q says Riot will instead give Anthropic rent credits that amortize the amount plus interest at 12% per year over the rest of the initial term.

The quarter behind it: Riot’s Q3 revenue was $181.4 million, up about 1% from $180.2 million a year earlier and ahead of consensus near $161 million. EPS was $0.01 against a consensus loss of about $0.34. Bitcoin mining revenue fell to $116 million from $160.8 million a year earlier, while engineering revenue rose to $47 million and data-center revenue contributed $18.4 million. Riot also sold 20,264 Bitcoin for about $1.5 billion in the first nine months of 2026, primarily to fund data-center development, and mined 1,637 Bitcoin in the quarter.

What’s next

The investment case now turns on delivery and financing, not on the headline number. The $28 billion is contracted future rent over 15 years, not revenue already earned, and the first Corsicana capacity is not due until 2027. Investors will watch whether Riot funds the build with nonrecourse project debt as planned, whether the 12% rent-credit clause is ever triggered, and how much of Riot’s income still comes from Bitcoin mining — at a Bitcoin price near $76,000 this weekend — as the Anthropic capacity comes online. Monday’s open will show whether Friday’s 13% jump holds once the wider market returns after a volatile week for AI stocks.

Sources

Bitcoin Magazine — Riot Names Anthropic As Tenant In $28 Billion Texas Lease
AI Stock Wire — Riot filing names Anthropic in $28B Corsicana lease
KuCoin — Riot Platforms Signs Anthropic for $28 Billion Texas Lease
TradingKey — Riot Platforms Signs $28 Billion Corsicana Lease as Q3 Revenue Rises 1%

FAQ

Who is the tenant behind Riot’s $28 billion Corsicana lease?

Anthropic PBC, the maker of Claude. Riot’s press release called it only a “leading Frontier AI Lab,” but its Form 10-Q names Anthropic directly.

How much did Riot stock rise on Friday, November 6?

RIOT closed up 13.21% at $16.71, from a previous close of $14.76, on volume of about 44.6 million shares.

How big is the Corsicana lease?

It covers 910 MW of critical IT capacity over 15 years, worth about $28 billion in the initial term and up to about $54 billion if both five-year extensions are exercised.

When does the Anthropic capacity arrive?

In three phases through July 2028, starting with 400 MW, followed by 200 MW and then 310 MW, according to Riot’s disclosures.