Riot signs $28 billion lease for entire Texas campus with unnamed AI lab
The tenant must pay rent on all 910 megawatts and cover substantially all operating costs. Two optional extensions could bring the agreement’s value to roughly $54 billion.
Loading page…
The tenant must pay rent on all 910 megawatts and cover substantially all operating costs. Two optional extensions could bring the agreement’s value to roughly $54 billion.
Listen to this story
Riot Platforms’ Corsicana deal gives its Texas data-center campus a long-term anchor tenant while shifting much of the operating-cost burden to the customer. The unnamed frontier AI lab is obligated to pay rent on all 910 megawatts whether it uses the capacity or not, and to cover substantially all operating expenses, including electricity. That structure makes the lease less dependent on actual utilization, though the roughly $28 billion value applies to the initial 15-year term.
Average annual rent is approximately $1.8 billion across the term, with scheduled increases rather than an identical payment every year.
Two five-year extension options could bring the total potential lease value to roughly $54 billion, but both options must be exercised.
Including the Rockdale lease and an AMD agreement, Riot has 1,151 megawatts of contracted data-center capacity.
Riot Platforms has committed its entire Corsicana, Texas campus to one unnamed AI lab under a 15-year lease valued at approximately $28 billion. Announced November 4, the agreement covers 910 megawatts of critical IT capacity, according to Cryptoprowl’s account of the company’s announcement. The tenant owes rent on the full capacity regardless of how much it uses.
Riot described the customer only as a leading frontier AI lab. CEO Jason Les called the agreement the largest lease in Riot’s history. Its disclosed terms combine a long rental commitment with responsibility for most of the campus’s running costs.
The agreement provides approximately $1.8 billion in average annual rent, including scheduled increases. That is an average over the lease, rather than a statement that the tenant will pay an identical amount each year.
The payment obligation applies to all 910 megawatts, not just the portion the lab actually uses. The contract therefore separates Riot’s rental payments from the tenant’s utilization: leaving some leased capacity idle would not reduce the capacity on which rent is due.
The lab is also responsible for substantially all operating expenses, including electricity. Those obligations sit alongside rent, putting both the cost of reserving the campus and most of the expense of operating it on the customer.
Les said the Corsicana agreement requires approximately half the capital of a typical top-tier data-center development. That is Riot’s comparison of development capital requirements, distinct from the tenant’s ongoing rent and operating-cost obligations.
The customer already has a relationship with Riot through an earlier lease at Rockdale. Combined with that agreement and Riot’s AMD agreement, the new Corsicana lease brings the company’s contracted data-center capacity to 1,151 megawatts.
Riot expects those projects together to generate more than $2 billion in average annual net operating income once fully deployed. That forecast covers the combined portfolio, not Corsicana alone, and depends on full deployment. It is not income already being earned from the newly signed lease.
Loading discussion...
Join the conversation
Explain when a long-term capacity commitment becomes too risky.
Be the first to share a perspective or an experience.
Reader comments
Newest comments first. Replies stay oldest first.