Riot Platforms buys Rockdale land and signs data centre deal with AMD
US digital infrastructure company Riot Platforms has bought full ownership of its Rockdale, Texas site and signed a long-term data centre lease with chipmaker AMD, paving the way for large-scale data centre development.
Riot Platforms said it has completed the purchase of 200 acres at its Rockdale site and entered into a data centre lease with Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., opening the facility to hyperscale data centre use.
Riot said the land acquisition cost $96 million and was funded entirely through the sale of about 1,080 bitcoin from its balance sheet. With the transaction complete, Riot now fully owns the Rockdale site, which includes a 700 megawatt connection to the power grid, dedicated water access and fibre connectivity.
The company said it plans to convert the full 700 megawatts of available power at Rockdale for data centre tenants. Across its two Texas sites, located roughly 100 miles apart, Riot said it now owns and manages more than 1,100 acres of land and 1.7 gigawatts of power capacity.
Under the data centre lease, AMD will initially deploy 25 megawatts of computing capacity at Rockdale, delivered in phases starting in January and completing in May. The lease has an initial term of 10 years and is expected to generate about $311 million in contract revenue.
Riot said the agreement includes three optional five-year extensions, which could take total contract revenue to around $1 billion if fully exercised. AMD also holds options to expand the deployment by a further 75 megawatts and a right of first refusal on an additional 100 megawatts, potentially increasing total leased capacity to 200 megawatts.
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The company reported retrofit capital spending of $89.8 million for the initial deployment, equal to about $3.6 million per megawatt. Riot said it expects the lease to contribute an average of about $25 million per year in net operating income.
Hasmukh Ranjan, chief information officer at AMD, said the partnership supports the company’s need for scalable, high-performance infrastructure to meet growing demand for AI and advanced computing.
The Recap
- Riot acquired fee simple title to 200 acres.
- AMD lease initially covers 25 MW and $311.0 million.
- Initial delivery phases scheduled for January and May.
