Riot Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:RIOT) stock traded higher Tuesday after the company reported second-quarter results after Monday’s market close. The rally may also have been supported by short-covering activity, with nearly 15% of the public float sold short.
Second-Quarter Earnings
Revenue rose 14% year over year to $174.2 million, beating the $152.1 million analyst estimate. Riot reported an adjusted EBITDA loss of $69.7 million, compared with adjusted EBITDA of $495.3 million a year earlier.
The results included more than $240 million in noncash charges, including a $75 million Bitcoin mark-to-market loss, $98 million in depreciation and amortization and a $28 million impairment related to construction assets at its Rockdale mining facility.
Riot ended the quarter with 11,380 Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC/USD) valued at about $666 million and more than $1.2 billion in liquidity, including $549 million in cash.
Data Center Business Gains Momentum
Data center revenue reached $23.2 million and generated $6.5 million in gross profit during the quarter.
Recurring operating lease revenue more than quadrupled from the first quarter to $4.9 million from $900,000. The business generated an 84% gross margin and about $4.1 million in gross profit.
Tenant fit-out services generated $18.3 million in revenue and $2.4 million in gross profit, down from $32.2 million in revenue in the first quarter due to lower activity.
Engineering revenue more than tripled year over year to $37.3 million, while gross margin climbed above 27% from about 7%. Engineering backlog reached $177.1 million, with roughly 90% tied to data centers.
Riot also increased manufacturing capacity by 25% in 2026 as it works to convert its engineering backlog into revenue.
Bitcoin Production
Riot produced 1,587 Bitcoin during the second quarter, or an average of 17.4 Bitcoin per day. Deployed hash rate reached 44.4 EH/s, representing about 4.6% of the global network.
Bitcoin mining revenue totaled $113.7 million, with average hash rate utilization of 87%.
Riot generated $10 million in power curtailment credits, helping reduce net power costs to 3.6 cents per kilowatt-hour. Direct mining costs were $49,912 per Bitcoin.
AI Data Center Deals Unlock Billions
Riot has secured about $9.8 billion in contracted data center revenue after signing a 191-megawatt, 20-year lease with a leading frontier AI lab at its Rockdale campus, adding to its existing agreement with Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD).
The new lease is expected to generate $9.1 billion in revenue over its initial term. Revenue could reach $16.1 billion if the tenant exercises two five-year extension options.
Riot expects the agreement to generate $7.3 billion to $8.2 billion in net operating income, or NOI, representing an 80% to 90% NOI margin.
Together, the AMD and AI lab agreements cover 241 MW of contracted IT capacity at Rockdale. Riot expects the contracts to generate about $520 million in average annual revenue and $416 million to $462 million in annual NOI.
Rockdale Development And Financing
Riot expects to deliver the first 96 MW in December 2027, with the remaining capacity scheduled for June 2028. The company estimates development costs of $2.1 billion to $2.3 billion, or $11 million to $12 million per IT MW.
To fund early development and long-lead equipment purchases, Riot secured a $573 million interim financing facility from Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) as it works toward permanent investment-grade financing.
AMD Expands Data Center Capacity
AMD also exercised an expansion option that doubled its contracted Rockdale capacity to 50 MW. Riot is building the additional 25 MW, with 10 MW expected online in November 2026 and the remaining 15 MW in May 2027.
The full 50-MW AMD deployment is expected to generate about $63.6 million in average annual revenue and $51 million in annual NOI, supported by approximately $170.2 million in capital spending.
At Corsicana, Riot signed a nonbinding letter of intent with a single prospective tenant for the entire campus. The site has 1 gigawatt of fully approved utility power and could support about 756 MW of critical IT capacity.
During the earnings call, CEO Jason Les said Riot’s Corsicana data center campus is under a non-binding letter of intent with a single tenant for the entire site. He said a lease covering the full campus could generate more than $1 billion in annual rent once fully deployed, though he cautioned that negotiations remain subject to uncertainty.
Across its portfolio, roughly 1 GW of capacity is either contracted or involved in advanced commercial discussions, while total utility power capacity exceeds 2 GW.
RIOT Price Action
RIOT Price Action: Riot Platforms shares were up 22.68% at $23.80 during premarket trading on Tuesday, according to Benzinga Pro data.
Photo via Shutterstock
