W.010Riot’s $28B Corsicana tenant is Anthropic, its 10-Q says
Riot Platforms has leased its whole 910MW Corsicana campus in Texas for 15 years, for about $28B of rent over the initial term. The release calls the tenant a “Frontier AI Lab”; the 10-Q filed the same morning names Anthropic PBC. At full deployment the lease’s average rent, about $1.8B a year, is about 2.5 times Riot’s current revenue run rate, and Riot puts its contracted revenue at $38B.
One lease, about 2.5 times Riot’s revenue
$ a year. Top: Riot’s third-quarter revenue multiplied by four, by segment. Below: each AI lease’s average annual revenue at full deployment, as Riot’s presentation gives it. The leases are contracted, not yet earned; Corsicana pays nothing until its first phase is delivered.
Data
| Lease | IT MW | Term | Avg annual revenue | Riot capex | Full deployment | Tenant |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AMD, Rockdale | 50MW | 10 yr | $63M | $169M | May 2027 | AMD (disclosed) |
| Rockdale lab | 191MW | 20 yr | $451M | $2.1–2.3B | Jun 2028 | the same “Frontier AI Lab” (10-Q); Anthropic per Bloomberg in August |
| Corsicana lab | 910MW | 15 yr | $1.8B | $5.5B | Jul 2028 | Anthropic PBC (10-Q) |
| Total | 1,151MW | $2.3B | $7.7–7.9B |
What was signed
Riot leases land, power and pads; the tenant brings the data center. The lease is triple-net on powered land: Riot delivers the site, the high- and medium-voltage infrastructure and powered pads, and the tenant buys, installs, owns and runs modular compute on them. Power is passed through at cost. Rent on each phase starts no later than 60 days after its powered pads are delivered, and it is owed whether or not the capacity is used, according to the release. The 10-Q says the lease was signed on October 28 and became binding on November 4, after approval by Riot’s board and approval of the technical specifications by Riot Corsicana’s third-party consultants.
The release does not name the tenant; the 10-Q does. Note 1 says Riot Corsicana entered the lease “with Anthropic PBC (the ‘Frontier AI Lab’)”, and the same note uses that defined term for the 191MW Rockdale lease announced in August. Bloomberg reported in August that the Rockdale tenant was Anthropic; Riot had not confirmed it.
The rent is set per kilowatt. The 10-Q puts base rent at $130 per kW of critical IT capacity per month, rising 3% a year. On 910MW that is $1.42B in the first full year; a straight 15-year schedule with 3% escalators comes to $26.4B. Riot gives about $28B for the initial term and an average of about $1.8B a year; it does not show how the total is built, and rent on early phases before the third phase starts the term would add to the straight figure.
Most of the capacity arrives between September 2027 and July 2028
Riot’s leased AI capacity, cumulative MW of critical IT load, at each scheduled delivery in its presentation. AMD is shown at its full 50MW from May 2027, when its lease reaches full deployment; part of it is earlier.
Data
| Corsicana phase | Blocks | Adds | Cumulative | Scheduled |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phase 1 | 1–16 | 400MW | 400MW | Sep 2027 |
| Phase 2 | 17–24 | 200MW | 600MW | Jan 2028 |
| Phase 3 | 25–40 | 310MW | 910MW | Jul 2028 |
Who pays for the build
Riot puts the capital cost at about $6M per MW, $5.5B in all. Riot spends about $2M per MW on site work and electrical infrastructure, about $1.8B, and reimburses the tenant up to $4M per MW for the data center modules, up to $3.64B, phase by phase once each phase is paying rent. Riot expects to fund the reimbursements with non-recourse project debt sized to the rent; its presentation illustrates $4.4–4.9B of project debt, 80–90% of the $5.5B hard cost, with $0.5–1.1B of Riot cash. If project debt is not available on market terms, the tenant pays the reimbursements itself and Riot repays it through rent credits carrying 12% a year interest, according to the 10-Q. Riot says it does not currently expect to issue equity for any announced project.
The yield Riot cites is rent over cost. Average rent of about $1.8B on $5.5B is 33%, the “approximately 33%” implied unlevered yield in the release, with a net operating income margin of about 99% because the lease is triple-net. Riot ended September with $669M of unrestricted cash and 2,418 bitcoin worth $202M; it sold 20,264 bitcoin in the first nine months for about $1.48B, mainly to fund data center development.
Cheaper per megawatt than leases that include a building
Rent per MW of IT capacity per year, $M: total contract value ÷ term ÷ MW as each company announced it, except Corsicana, which is shown at the 10-Q’s starting rent and at Riot’s stated average. Scopes differ: Corsicana is powered land with the tenant owning the modules; the others include buildings or more, and Rockdale is build-to-suit with operations.
The market and the quarter
Riot’s shares rose about 15% in morning trading. They were up 14.8% at $16.10 in morning trading, according to a Blockonomi report published at 15:40 UTC. On the 10-Q’s share count that is a market value of about $6.0B, against about $5.3B at Tuesday’s $14.02 close. The initial-term rent alone is about 5.3 times that pre-announcement value.
The quarter itself was still mostly bitcoin. Revenue was $181M: $116M from mining, $47M from engineering and $18M from data centers, most of it reimbursed tenant fit-out. Net income was $4M; adjusted EBITDA was $191M.
What this changes on 06.ai
- Pack lead (Anthropic’s compute, and W.001): a Riot filing now names Anthropic as a tenant for 910MW in Corsicana, and by the 10-Q’s defined term, for the 191MW at Rockdale. The Corsicana lease was signed on October 28, after the September 30 date of the S-1 amendment’s commitments, so it is not in the $895.4B W.001 reported.
- Series lead: AI leases at former bitcoin miners, with MW, term, total value, $ per MW per year and who owns the building. Corsicana is the first in this set where the tenant owns the modules, which is why its rent per MW is lower.
- Pack lead (015, who funds the neoclouds): Corsicana’s funding fallback, tenant-funded capex repaid at 12% through rent credits, is a structure worth tracking beside the investment-grade backstops in other miner leases.
Sources and method
| Item | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Q3 results and the lease | Corsicana: 15-year triple-net powered land lease of the whole 332-acre campus, 910MW of critical IT capacity, with a “leading Frontier AI Lab”; about $28B over the initial term, about $1.8B average annual rent, about $54B with two five-year extensions; rent owed irrespective of utilization; about $6M per MW of capital cost ($5.5B), Riot funding about $2M per MW and reimbursing the tenant up to $4M per MW, the reimbursements expected to be funded with non-recourse project debt; about 33% implied unlevered yield on cost; Q3 revenue $181.4M; 20,264 BTC sold in nine months for about $1.5B | Riot 8-K, exhibit 99.1, Nov 4 |
| Presentation | Phases 400MW (Sep 2027), 200MW (Jan 2028), 310MW (Jul 2028); 1.0GW utility load; portfolio of 1,151MW and $2.3B average annual revenue; $38B contracted; project debt of $4.4–4.9B (80–90% of $5.5B hard costs) and Riot equity of $0.5–1.1B for Corsicana (illustrative); Riot does not currently anticipate issuing equity | Riot 8-K, exhibit 99.2, Nov 4 |
| Tenant and rent | Lease signed Oct 28 with “Anthropic PBC (the Frontier AI Lab)”, effective Nov 4; $130.0 per kW per month escalating 3% a year; 40 blocks in three phases; reimbursement of up to $4.0M per MW; if project financing is not available the tenant funds it and Riot gives rent credits with 12% a year interest; Rockdale lease with “the Frontier AI Lab”; 20,264 BTC sold for $1,484.0M in nine months | Riot 10-Q, Nov 4 |
| Rockdale lease | 191MW, 20 years, about $9.1B; with “one of the world’s leading frontier AI labs” | Riot, Aug 10 |
| Rockdale tenant | Reported by Bloomberg as Anthropic; Riot did not confirm | DCD, Aug 2026 |
| AMD lease | 25MW, 10 years, about $311M; later amended to 50MW | Riot, Jan 16 |
| Shares | Up 14.84% to $16.10, a rise of $2.08, in morning trading | Blockonomi, Nov 4 |
| TeraWulf | About $19B, 20-year lease with Anthropic in Kentucky | TeraWulf 8-K, exhibit 99.1, Jul 2026 |
| Hut 8 | 245MW, 15-year triple-net lease, $7.0B | Hut 8, Dec 17, 2025 |
| Applied Digital | 400MW of CoreWeave leases, about $11B, about 15 years | Applied Digital via Seeking Alpha, Aug 2025 |
| Cipher | 300MW, 15 years, about $5.5B with AWS | DCD, Nov 2025 |
Rent. $130 × 12 months × 910000 kW = $1.42B a year at full capacity, or $1.56M per MW. Fifteen years at 3% escalators multiply the first year by (1.0315 − 1) ÷ 0.03 = 18.60, giving $26.4B. Riot’s average, about $1.8B ÷ 910MW, is $1.98M per MW. Run rate. Third-quarter revenue $181M × 4 = $726M; $1.8B ÷ $726M = 2.5. Segment bars are each segment × 4. Portfolio. 50MW + 191MW + 910MW = 1,151MW; average annual revenue $63M + $451M + $1.8B = $2.3B. The $38B contracted figure is Riot’s; roughly, it is $28B + $9.1B (Rockdale) + AMD’s $63M × 10 years = $37.7B.
Capital. $2M × 910MW = $1.82B; $4M × 910MW = $3.64B; together $5.46B, which Riot rounds to $5.5B. Yield on cost is $1.8B ÷ $5.5B = 32.7%. Market value. Tuesday’s close is Blockonomi’s $16.10 less its $2.08 rise, $14.02, which matches the published close; 375.2M shares (10-Q cover, November 2) × $14.02 = $5.26B, and × $16.10 = $6.04B. A closing price for November 4 was not available when this was written. Other leases: total ÷ years ÷ MW, from each announcement; TeraWulf’s MW (about 401) is from its July release, Applied Digital’s term is approximate.
Wire reports are written within hours of the news, on a six-hour schedule. Each lists its sources and shows the arithmetic behind its figures. Not investment advice.