Bitcoin Miner Riot Set to Earn More From AI Than Bitcoin Mining

Bitcoin miner Riot Platforms is increasingly shifting its focus towards AI data centres. A new agreement worth $9.1 billion is expected to deliver significantly higher margins over twenty years than Bitcoin mining. It is a clear illustration of why more and more miners are putting their enormous power capacity to work for artificial intelligence.

AI offers far higher margins

The new agreement covers 191 megawatts of capacity and has a term of twenty years. Riot would generate around $455 million in revenue per year on that basis.

The expected margin is between 80% and 90%. That is nearly three times higher than the margin of around 30% Riot achieves with Bitcoin mining in the second quarter.

Together with an existing lease agreement with AMD, Riot has now secured contracts worth around $9.8 billion. In total, that amounts to 241 megawatts of capacity.

Riot sells thousands of Bitcoin

The shift also has consequences for Riot’s Bitcoin position. In the second quarter, the miner is selling around 4,300 BTC to help finance, among other things, its development towards AI data centres.

For Bitcoin miners, the move makes sense. They already have large sites, access to huge amounts of electricity and infrastructure that can be partially adapted for powerful AI data centres.

Where that capacity was used almost exclusively to mine Bitcoin for years, AI can currently generate much higher revenue per megawatt. Riot is therefore increasingly turning from a pure Bitcoin miner into a provider of large-scale digital infrastructure.