Riot Platforms has secured a second major AI data center tenant at its Rockdale, Texas campus, signing a 20-year agreement for 191 MW of critical IT capacity at a new build-to-suit Tier 3 facility.
The project will support one of the world’s leading frontier AI labs, which Riot did not identify in its announcement. Anthropic has since been linked to the more than $9 billion lease for the data center project in Milam County, Texas. Riot expects to deliver the first 96 MW in December 2027 and complete the full 191 MW deployment by June 2028.
The agreement represents a major expansion of data center development at the Rockdale campus, where Riot has already deployed capacity for AMD and continues construction on an additional expansion.
191 MW data center planned at Rockdale
Riot will develop the 191 MW facility as a build-to-suit Tier 3 data center at its Rockdale campus. The initial lease term runs for 20 years through June 2048.
Riot expects the agreement to generate approximately $9.1 billion in contract revenue during the initial term. The tenant also holds two five-year extension options that could raise the total potential contract value to approximately $16.1 billion.
The contract values represent expected lease revenue and do not reflect the project’s total construction cost.
Riot has secured a $573 million interim financing facility from Morgan Stanley to fund initial development costs while it finalizes an investment-grade credit backstop.
The company plans to use its existing, fully approved interconnection at Rockdale to support the project.
Phased delivery scheduled through June 2028
Construction and infrastructure deployment will follow a phased schedule.
Riot expects to deliver the first 96 MW of critical IT capacity in December 2027. The company then targets full deployment of all 191 MW by June 2028.
The new agreement gives Riot its second contracted data center tenant at Rockdale, following its lease with AMD.
Riot completed delivery of AMD’s initial 25 MW deployment during the second quarter of 2026. Construction is now underway on a further 25 MW expansion, with 10 MW scheduled for delivery in November 2026 and the remaining 15 MW expected in May 2027.
Together, the two agreements bring Riot’s executed data center leases at Rockdale to 241 MW of capacity.
The new agreement expands Riot’s data center development at Rockdale, where the company has already signed a separate lease with AMD and continues work to increase that customer’s capacity to 50 MW.
Rockdale development expands as AI data center demand grows
The 191 MW project marks the latest step in Riot’s expansion into AI and high-performance computing infrastructure.
Its size also makes it substantially larger than Riot’s initial 25 MW AMD deployment and subsequent 25 MW expansion at the same campus. The project now adds a future delivery schedule extending from late 2027 through mid-2028.
As Riot advances its new Texas development, other data center projects have reached later stages of construction. WhiteFiber’s NC-1 data center campus in North Carolina recently moved from construction into active customer deployment, with initial capacity delivered and billing underway across its first 40 MW of contracted IT load.
Project factsheet: Riot Platforms AI data center in Rockdale, Texas
- Project: 191 MW AI data center
- Location: Rockdale, Texas
- Developer: Riot Platforms
- Tenant: Unnamed leading frontier AI lab
- Facility: Build-to-suit Tier 3 data center
- Capacity: 191 MW of critical IT capacity
- Initial lease term: 20 years through June 2048
- Initial contract value: Approximately $9.1 billion
- Potential contract value: Approximately $16.1 billion if both five-year extensions are exercised
- Financing: $573 million interim financing facility from Morgan Stanley for initial development costs
- First delivery: 96 MW expected in December 2027
- Full deployment: 191 MW expected in June 2028
- Rockdale context: Riot has executed data center leases totaling 241 MW at the campus
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