The U.S. company Riot Platforms Inc ( RIOT ) sold 79% of its Bitcoin in the third quarter of 2026 and instead directed its capital towards the construction of artificial intelligence infrastructure. According to the latest financial report, the company reduced its cryptocurrency holdings from 11,380 BTC to 2,418 BTC.
In the first nine months of this year, Riot sold a total of 20,264 BTC units in the market, generating approximately $1.5 billion. This funds were used to support the company's major technological transformation: its available power generation capacity is being reallocated to meet the demands of high-performance computing.
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The main motivation for selling the cryptocurrency is a 15-year agreement reached between the company and Frontier AI Lab ( Anthropic ), which includes leasing an existing site and production capacity located in the Corsicana campus in Texas, totaling 910 MW. This strategic partner is the Frontier AI Lab ( Anthropic ) laboratory.
The initial value of this contract is estimated to be $28 billion, with an average annual rent of about $1.8 billion in the initial phase. After including other projects, Riot's long-term total revenue in the data center business has reached $38 billion, with a controlled total capacity of 1,151 MW.
The Chief Executive Officer Jason Les stated that the protocol adopts a triple-net lease structure. According to this clause, customers are responsible for purchasing and maintaining their own computing equipment. For Riot, this reduces the construction costs by approximately half compared to building a standard Tier data center. As a result, the company will not need to issue new shares, nor will it dilute the shareholders' holdings.
Against the backdrop of declining profit margins in traditional mining, the company is accelerating this shift in its business focus. Riot Revenue from cryptocurrency mining this quarter decreased by 28% to $116 million, despite the company actually mining 1,637 BTC.
However, the company's quarterly total revenue still remained at $181.4 million, a year-on-year increase of 1%, which was higher than market expectations. The net profit was $4.03 million.
To optimize its balance sheet, the company has fully closed its $200 million credit line from Coinbase and returned 5,821 BTC that were used as collateral. As of the end of this quarter, Riot holds $950.2 million in free liquidity (including cash and remaining cryptocurrencies). There are still 2,418 BTC retained on the balance sheet, which may also be sold in the fourth quarter to provide funding for Texas Construction.
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