Riot Platforms Earnings Call: Big Build, Bigger Bets

Riot Platforms, Inc. ((RIOT)) has held its Q4 earnings call. Read on for the main highlights of the call.

Riot Platforms’ latest earnings call painted a picture of powerful operational momentum tempered by stubborn financial growing pains. Management highlighted rapid progress in transforming the business into a large-scale data center and Bitcoin infrastructure platform, yet rising costs, hefty GAAP losses, and funding needs mean investors must weigh clear upside potential against execution and balance-sheet risk.

Transformational Site Acquisitions and Campus Scale-Up

Riot underscored the strategic importance of buying the Rockdale site outright, paying $96 million funded by selling around 1,080 Bitcoin and eliminating roughly $130 million in future rent. At the same time, the company expanded Corsicana to roughly 900 acres, giving it room to fully develop 1.0 gigawatt of approved power on a contiguous, Riot-owned campus that anchors its long-term data center strategy.

AMD Becomes Anchor Tenant for Data Center Pivot

The headline commercial win was a 10-year anchor lease with AMD, an investment-grade tenant, for an initial 25 megawatts of data center capacity worth $311 million in contract value. Five megawatts are already online and generating rent as of January 2026, with the remaining 20 megawatts expected by May and options that could ultimately take AMD’s footprint to as much as 200 megawatts.

1.7 GW of Fully Approved Power as Scarce Asset

Management stressed that Riot now controls 1.7 gigawatts of fully approved, firm, energized power across Texas, split between 700 megawatts at Rockdale and 1,000 megawatts at Corsicana. With average 2025 loads of 351 megawatts at Rockdale and 335 megawatts at Corsicana, the company sees this energized capacity as a scarce and critical advantage in a market where new power can take four or more years to secure.

Bitcoin Mining Drives Record Revenue and Gross Profit

Despite the strategic pivot, Bitcoin mining remained the financial engine, delivering $576 million of the company’s $647 million in 2025 revenue, up 72 percent year over year. Mining posted record annual gross profit of $294 million, helped by both higher production and power-related credits, while engineering and other segments contributed another $71 million.

Scaling Hash Rate and Growing Bitcoin Treasury

Riot produced 5,686 Bitcoin in 2025, an 18 percent increase from 2024, as deployed hash rate climbed 22 percent to 38.5 exahash per second, or around 3.5 percent of global capacity. Hash rate utilization improved from 70 percent to 87 percent, and the company ended the year holding 18,005 Bitcoin valued at about $1.6 billion, even after selling coins to fund expansion.

Engineering Backlog Surges with Vertical Integration Edge

The engineering segment emerged as a growing pillar, with backlog jumping 302 percent to $224.6 million, roughly 90 percent of which is tied to data center projects. Management highlighted ESS Metron, its in-house switchgear and power distribution unit manufacturer, as a key edge that has delivered about $23.2 million in cumulative capital expenditure savings and helped de-risk critical equipment procurement.

Ultra-Low Power Costs and Lucrative Curtailment Strategy

Riot reported a net power cost of $0.037 per kilowatt-hour for 2025, placing it among the lowest-cost operators in the sector and reinforcing its competitiveness through Bitcoin cycles. The company’s power strategy generated $56.7 million in curtailment credits, equivalent to roughly $10,000 per Bitcoin mined, providing an important buffer for margins and cash flow in volatile crypto markets.

Efficient AMD Buildout and Capital Recycling Plans

The first phase of AMD’s capacity was delivered on time and on budget, with initial deployment capital of about $90 million, or roughly $3.6 million per critical IT megawatt, which management described as well below typical new-build costs. Riot plans to layer in project debt and later refinance stabilized assets with permanent financing to recycle equity and support additional data center development without excessive dilution.

GAAP Losses Masked by Heavy Noncash Charges

On the income statement, Riot posted a sizable 2025 GAAP net loss of $663 million, or $1.95 per diluted share, despite strong top-line growth. The loss was driven largely by noncash and one-time items, including $346.8 million of depreciation and amortization, $125.7 million of stock-based compensation, a $158.1 million contract settlement loss, and $115.9 million in unrealized Bitcoin mark-to-market adjustments.

Thin Adjusted EBITDA Highlights Cash-Flow Constraints

After backing out those noncash and unusual items, adjusted EBITDA for 2025 was just $13 million, a slim result relative to $647 million of revenue. That modest figure signals that, even with growth, Riot’s core operations are only generating limited near-term cash and that the funding of large-scale expansion still depends on external capital and asset monetization.

Higher Mining Costs and Bitcoin Price Exposure

Cost to mine each Bitcoin climbed sharply to $49,645 in 2025 from $32,216 a year earlier, an increase of roughly 54 percent that raises the company’s sensitivity to Bitcoin price swings. Riot also took $115.9 million in unrealized mark-to-market losses on its holdings and continues to sell Bitcoin to fund capital projects, exposing its balance-sheet strength to crypto volatility and the risk of drawing down treasury reserves.

Revenue Concentration and Data Center Transition Risk

Despite the new AMD lease and a growing engineering backlog, about 89 percent of Riot’s 2025 revenue still came from Bitcoin mining, underlining a significant concentration risk. Management is betting that its power portfolio will convert into a diversified base of long-term data center leases, but the timing, pricing, and certainty of additional contracts remain open questions even amid encouraging customer discussions.

Valuation Discount Reflects Market Skepticism

Riot’s shares are trading at roughly $2.2 million per megawatt of expected 2027 capacity, a marked discount to peers that already have large portfolios under contract. Executives acknowledged that closing multiple sizable lease deals will be critical to narrowing this valuation gap, as investors await proof that Riot’s power and land bank can reliably translate into durable, contracted cash flows.

Financing and Supply-Chain Risks Still in Focus

The company intends to finance its buildout with a mix of Bitcoin sales and project-level borrowing, while ultimately refinancing mature assets with longer-term debt to free up capital. Although ownership of ESS Metron helps mitigate supply-chain issues around transformers and switchgear, management cautioned that procurement lead times and the availability and pricing of low-cost financing remain key execution risks for the multi-year expansion plan.

Guidance Points to 2026 Lease Wins and Power Buildout

Looking ahead to 2026, Riot plans to fully deliver the initial 25 megawatts under the AMD lease, supporting an expected average annual net operating income of about $25 million from that contract alone. Management also expects to sign additional leases across its 1.7 gigawatt power portfolio, complete a substation expansion at Corsicana to 1.0 gigawatt, secure project financing backed by cash-flowing assets, and sees long-term portfolio net operating income potential of $1.6 billion to $2.1 billion once the platform is fully built.

Riot’s earnings call showcased a company in the midst of a major transformation, pairing record mining performance and a landmark AMD deal with ambitious infrastructure deployment plans. Investors now face a classic risk-reward trade-off, weighing a rare, large-scale power footprint and growing data center pipeline against rising costs, heavy capital needs, and the hard work of converting potential into contracted, sustainable returns.