Shares of bitcoin miner Riot Platforms climbed nearly 7 percent after activist fund Starboard Value went public with a detailed plan that urges the company to move faster into artificial intelligence data center hosting. In a letter to CEO Jason Les and Executive Chairman Benjamin Yi, Starboard argued that Riot is sitting on one of the strongest power portfolios in the sector and that management is not exploiting it quickly enough as demand for AI infrastructure accelerates.
Starboard’s pitch centers on Riot’s two large Texas sites at Corsicana and Rockdale, which together have roughly 1.7 gigawatts of fully approved power capacity that could be converted to AI and high performance computing data centers. If Riot can price that capacity in line with recent industry deals, the investor estimates the company could generate more than 1.6 billion dollars in annual EBITDA from AI and HPC hosting alone, and pegs potential equity value from those sites in a range of about 9 to 21 billion dollars, or roughly 23 to 53 dollars per share, compared with a recent close near 15 dollars.
The letter highlights a recent agreement with Advanced Micro Devices as proof that Riot can attract blue chip tenants. That deal starts with 25 megawatts of IT load at the Rockdale facility, with options to expand to as much as 200 megawatts over time. Riot expects the contract to bring in about 311 million dollars in revenue over an initial ten year term, with margins around 80 percent at full scale. Starboard welcomed the AMD lease but described it as a small demonstration compared with what could be achieved if Riot locks in several large, long duration AI hosting customers.
Starboard, which holds roughly 12.7 million Riot shares and helped add new directors with data center expertise last year, has been pressing the company for more than a year to tilt away from pure bitcoin mining. In its latest letter the fund says Riot should prioritize investment grade tenants such as hyperscalers and enterprise AI providers, rather than simply chasing the highest advertised lease rates, and warns that in such a fast moving market the company must act with urgency or risk becoming an acquisition target for larger infrastructure or technology players.
The market reaction reflects both the opportunity and the pressure. Riot is still one of the largest listed bitcoin miners in the United States, with a market capitalization around 4 billion dollars, yet its shares remain far below their 2021 peak and have lagged peers that already secured sizable AI hosting deals. Investors and analysts now see the Starboard plan as a potential roadmap for rerating the stock if management can sign more AMD style contracts and prove that its Texas power capacity can be turned into a steady stream of high margin AI data center revenue rather than relying mainly on volatile bitcoin mining economics.





































































































