Riot (RIOT) Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

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Date

Monday, March 2, 2026 at 4:30 p.m. ET

Call participants

Chief Executive Officer — Jason Les
Chief Financial Officer — Jason Chung
Head of Investor Relations — Joshua Kane

Takeaways

Total Revenue -- $647 million, reflecting a 72% increase driven primarily by Bitcoin mining operations.
Bitcoin Mining Revenue -- $576.3 million, contributing 89% of total revenue and marking a record annual revenue and gross profit for the segment.
Engineering and Other Revenue -- $71 million, accounting for 11% of total revenue.
Net Loss -- $663 million, or $1.95 per diluted share, with the loss reflecting significant noncash expenses such as $346.8 million in depreciation and amortization, $125.7 million in stock-based compensation, $158.1 million contract settlement loss, and $115.9 million in unrealized mark-to-market bitcoin adjustments.
Non-GAAP Adjusted EBITDA -- $13 million after adjusting for noncash and unusual items.
Power Curtailment Credits -- $56.7 million for the year, equivalent to nearly $10,000 per Bitcoin mined.
Net Cost of Power -- 3.7¢ per kilowatt-hour, recognized as one of the lowest among industry peers.
Bitcoin Production -- 5,686 Bitcoin mined, an 18% increase over the previous year.
Year-End Bitcoin Holdings -- 18,005 Bitcoin on the balance sheet, valued at $1.6 billion as of December 31, 2025.
Hash Rate Deployed -- 38.5 exahash by year-end, equating to about 3.5% of the global network hash rate.
Average Hash Rate Utilization -- 87%, up from 70% in 2024.
Engineering Backlog -- $224.6 million at year-end, a 302% increase from prior year, with 90% related to the data center sector.
Capital Efficiency—AMD Lease -- Capital required for the initial 25 megawatt AMD lease deployment is about $90 million, or $3.6 million per critical IT megawatt, below levels for traditional new builds.
AMD Lease Terms -- 10-year agreement for 25 megawatts, with three 5-year extension options and $311 million total contract value; average annual NOI expected at $25 million.
AMD Lease Profitability Comparison -- Lease generates 2.5x more gross profit per megawatt than current Bitcoin mining.
Approved Power Capacity -- 1.7 gigawatts fully approved and available at Rockdale (700MW) and Corsicana (1,000MW) sites.
Rockdale Site Acquisition -- Acquired for $96 million in 2025, funded by the sale of about 1,080 Bitcoin; deal eliminated $130 million of future rental obligations.
Average Cost to Mine Bitcoin -- $49,645 in 2025, up from $32,216 in 2024, with global hash rate rising 47% during the same period.
ESS Metron Synergy Realization -- $23.2 million in CapEx savings since acquisition, with further scaling expected from upcoming data center development.

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Risks

Net loss of $663 million explicitly attributed to large noncash expenses, contract settlement losses, and mark-to-market volatility on Bitcoin holdings rather than core operations.
Cost to mine each Bitcoin increased to $49,645 from $32,216 year over year due to a 47% rise in the global network hash rate and higher difficulty environment.

Summary

Riot Platforms (RIOT 2.03%) completed a strategic transition in 2025 by evolving from a pure-play Bitcoin miner to an institutional-scale data center developer, highlighted by securing its first lease with AMD and full ownership of the Rockdale site. Management introduced a disciplined capital strategy focused on funding new data center assets through a mix of Bitcoin treasury sales, project financing, and targeted debt structures, expressly avoiding dilutive equity. Contracted revenue from AMD’s 10-year agreement is expected to be $311 million, with high expansion potential and a 2.5x gross profit advantage over mining. Riot’s power portfolio, comprising 1.7 gigawatts of approved capacity, is fully energized and unaffected by recent ERCOT regulatory processes, distinguishing it in a constrained power market. Vertical integration through ESS Metron enables rapid delivery, CapEx savings, and mitigates supply chain risks for new builds. Riot’s engineering business also drove a substantial backlog increase, particularly in the data center segment.

Management confirmed, "The batch process does not impact Riot Platforms, Inc," directly reducing approval uncertainty at Corsicana and Rockdale.
Chief Financial Officer Jason Chung explained the intent to "continue to sell Bitcoin directly from our balance sheet in order to fund our operational needs and growth CapEx," but also plans to leverage nondilutive debt as the platform scales.
CEO Jason Les cited that discussions with "multiple parties" are underway for additional leases, and noted flexibility to structure single-tenant or multi-tenant arrangements, but said most current interest is for entire sites.
ESS Metron’s integration provides Riot with "the internal ability to engineer and manufacture low- and medium-voltage switchgear," giving priority procurement and a clear speed-to-market advantage for large-scale tenant delivery.
Riot’s power strategy generated $56.7 million in curtailment credits, substantially driving competitiveness and net cost-of-power metrics below industry averages.
AMD holds significant expansion and right-of-first-refusal options, which could bring its Rockdale data center footprint up to 200 megawatts if exercised.

Industry glossary

Basis of Design: A detailed initial technical plan that establishes specifications and requirements for data center development, enabling commercial engagement with potential tenants.
Power Curtailment Credits: Financial credits received by large electricity users for voluntarily reducing consumption during grid stress or high pricing periods, often monetized in the mining sector.
Hash Rate: The total computational processing power deployed by a mining operation or the overall Bitcoin network, measured in exahash per second (EH/s).
Right of First Refusal (ROFR): A contractual right granting a tenant the priority to lease additional capacity before it is offered to third parties.
Core and Shell Development: The construction of a data center’s structural framework and essential systems before tenant-specific customization.

Full Conference Call Transcript

Jason Les, Chief Executive Officer, and Jason Chung, Chief Financial Officer. On the Riot Platforms, Inc. Investor Relations website, you can find our fiscal year 2025 earnings press release and accompanying earnings presentation, which are intended to supplement today's prepared remarks and which include a discussion of certain non-GAAP items. Non-GAAP financial measures provided should not be considered as a substitute for or superior to the measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with GAAP and are included as additional clarifying items to aid investors in further understanding the company's fiscal year 2025 performance.

Forward-looking statements may include, but are not limited to, statements that predict future events or trends, forecast our performance, and may contain words such as believe, expect, intend, project, and plan, or words or phrases with similar meaning. Actual results can materially differ due to factors discussed in today's earnings press release and comments and responses made during today's call and in the Risk Factors section of our Form 10-K for the year ended 12/31/2025, which will be filed later today, as well as other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. With that, I will turn the call over to Jason Les, CEO of Riot Platforms, Inc.

Jason Les: Thank you, Josh. 2025 was a transformational year for Riot Platforms, Inc. It was the year we fundamentally repositioned this company to be at the forefront of the data center industry. Today, I am exceptionally proud to share the significant milestones we have achieved and outline the path forward as we continue executing on our strategy to maximize the value of our power portfolio for shareholders. Riot Platforms, Inc. has evolved from a Bitcoin mining company with data center potential into a proven data center developer with a track record of rapid execution. I'd like to take a minute now to walk through some of the key achievements that made 2025 truly transformational for Riot Platforms, Inc.

We completed the fee simple acquisition of our Rockdale site, securing 200 acres of critical land now under our full ownership. We also completed our basis of design platform that positions us to deliver data center capacity at the scale and speed the market demands. We built substantial internal expertise by recruiting veteran data center talent across every critical function. Our team now includes leadership across product development, construction, engineering, and sales, and 200 data center projects totaling nearly 4.8 gigawatts of design and construction experience. This depth of experience is critical. It is what enabled us to give prospective tenants confidence in our ability to deliver mission-critical infrastructure on aggressive timelines.

Data center development talent is in high demand, and we are incredibly proud of the depth of capabilities and experience that we have been able to attract to Riot Platforms, Inc. The quality of our data center team is a critical advantage in ensuring that potential tenants and partners are confident in our ability to deliver at scale. We have also significantly expanded our land to support full utilization of our approved power capacity. We acquired three additional parcels adjacent to and near our original Corsicana site, bringing our total land footprint at Corsicana to approximately 900 acres.

This acquisition simplifies and expedites the planned development of our full 1 gigawatt of approved power capacity at Corsicana, all on Riot Platforms, Inc.-owned land in a connected campus layout. In 2025, we closed on the previously leased 200-acre Rockdale site for total consideration of $96,000,000 funded entirely through the sale of approximately 1,080 Bitcoin from our balance sheet. This purchase was a strategic imperative. Converting our interest from a ground lease to full ownership unlocked our ability to develop data centers at Rockdale and eliminated approximately $130,000,000 in future rental payments that would have been due over the remaining lease term and extension options.

And finally, we completed our standard basis of design, which was a critical step in engaging potential tenants on both technical and commercial discussions. Together, these achievements have positioned Riot Platforms, Inc. for substantial data center development in 2026 and beyond. On the leasing front, we announced our first lease with AMD in January 2026, demonstrating Riot Platforms, Inc.'s capabilities as a credible developer and operator. When a company of AMD's caliber chooses Riot Platforms, Inc. for mission-critical infrastructure, it sends a clear signal to the market about the strength of our capabilities and our team. Our focus for 2026 is clear. One, the delivery of the full 25 megawatts of compute for our AMD lease.

Two, executing on additional leases at both Corsicana and Rockdale, beginning with the development of our first core and shell at Corsicana. And three, secure attractive low-cost financing that reflects the quality of our tenants and sites. We now have active discussions ongoing with multiple high-quality tenants who have expressed strong interest at both our Corsicana and Rockdale sites. The absolute certainty to large-scale power our sites offer is incredibly rare in today's market and has led to numerous interested parties actively engaging. Our sales strategy accommodates leasing outcomes that result in either single-tenant or multi-tenant campuses at both locations, maximizing our flexibility. On the development front, our execution is already speaking for itself.

We delivered the initial phase of power capacity to AMD on time and on budget, and we are already generating revenue. In an industry where delays are common, delivering on time to a world-class tenant is a powerful validation of our execution capabilities. Core and shell development is underway and progressing at Corsicana. Our Corsicana substation expansion remains on schedule with total power capacity reaching 1 gigawatt over the next twelve months. On capital management, Riot Platforms, Inc. is maintaining a disciplined framework to efficiently fund our data center business. We are activating our strong balance sheet to fund upfront development cost without relying on dilutive equity financing.

We will efficiently access project finance and debt capital markets to deliver on high credit quality leases. Upon stabilization of our assets, we plan to refinance with permanent debt to recycle capital into higher return projects, creating a compounding flywheel of development. Initial work is underway to assess financing options for the AMD lease, including additional capacity for future potential expansions in anticipation of AMD exercising their options. Moving to slide eight, I want to underscore the philosophy driving our leasing strategy. We are not simply looking to fill capacity. We are focused on strong, high creditworthy tenants to match our high-quality assets. The reason for this focus comes down to capital efficiency and asset valuation.

In the digital infrastructure space, cost of capital is highly correlated to the credit quality of the tenant, often pricing off the back of their underlying credit rating. By partnering with highly creditworthy counterparties, we secure the most favorable, lowest-cost financing available in the market. This minimizes our equity investment requirements and maximizes our return on invested capital. From a capital markets perspective, this also drives premium valuation multiples, leading to significant value creation for our shareholders. The AMD lease serves as a validation of our strategy.

AMD is a global leader in the AI ecosystem with an S&P credit rating of A, and to have a tenant of AMD's caliber entrust Riot Platforms, Inc. to deliver mission-critical infrastructure sends a definitive message to the broader market. This message is that our team, our sites, and our execution strategy are operating at the highest possible level, and this paves the way for ongoing discussions with other high-quality partners. Now I would like to pause and highlight the importance of the achievement that Riot Platforms, Inc. has made. We have successfully commenced phase one of the AMD lease on schedule in January and remain on track to deliver phase two as planned in May.

This execution validates the capabilities of our data center team and demonstrates our ability to meet the demanding timelines of premier technology tenants. The speed of our execution was remarkable. We announced the lease in January and delivered the first phase of capacity within the same month, which is something that traditional greenfield developers simply cannot match. We are delivering capacity in two phases to de-risk execution. The first 5 megawatt phase was delivered and commenced rent in January 2026. The remaining 20 megawatts will follow in May 2026, bringing the total initial deployment to 25 megawatts of critical IT load.

The capital required for this initial deployment is approximately $90,000,000, which translates to roughly $3,600,000 per critical IT megawatt, significantly below what traditional new build projects typically require. The expansion potential is significant. AMD holds an option to expand by an additional 75 megawatts of critical IT load, which can be accommodated within the remainder of Building G and Building F using the same capital-efficient retrofit model. Beyond that, AMD holds a right of first refusal on an additional 100 megawatts of capacity. If AMD were to fully exercise both the expansion option and the ROFR, their total footprint at Rockdale would reach 200 megawatts of critical IT load. This slide reviews the key terms of our previously announced deal.

With this lease, we have entered into a 10-year agreement to provide customized data center space at our now fully owned Rockdale site. The lease includes three five-year extension options, creating the potential for a 25-year partnership. From a financial perspective, the total contract value for this initial 25 megawatt deployment over the 10-year base term is $311,000,000. We expect this to generate average annual net operating income of approximately $25,000,000, representing highly visible contracted cash flows with an investment-grade counterparty. Our power-first strategy underpins everything we do at Riot Platforms, Inc. The majority of Riot Platforms, Inc.'s operating power capacity is currently monetized through Bitcoin mining, which generates strong cash flows to support our operations and development activities.

Going forward, we will continue to convert power capacity and pursue data center leases that maximize value for our shareholders. The AMD lease demonstrates this strategy in action. We leveraged existing infrastructure to deliver at speed and at scale, translating into highly profitable and predictable long-term contracted cash flows with an investment-grade counterparty. The economic comparison is compelling. The AMD lease generates 2.5 times more gross profit per megawatt than Bitcoin mining. This economic framework will guide our capital allocation decisions going forward. Where we can generate higher risk-adjusted returns through data center leasing with creditworthy counterparties, we will prioritize data center development.

Where Bitcoin mining remains the highest and best use of our power, we will continue mining while remaining flexible to convert that capacity to data center use. Slide 14 highlights the significant scale and quality of Riot Platforms, Inc.'s power portfolio in Texas. Riot Platforms, Inc. has 1.7 gigawatts of fully approved firm power across our Corsicana and Rockdale sites. This is not a prospective pipeline or speculative capacity, but rather power that is in use and available for development and utilization today. At Rockdale, we have 700 megawatts of total approved capacity. This power was originally approved in 2019 and energized in 2020. In fiscal year 2025, we had an average load of 351 megawatts at Rockdale.

The site features a direct noninterruptible, evergreen connection to the grid with no intermediaries between Riot Platforms, Inc. and the utility, supported by a 700 megawatt substation already on-site and operating. At Corsicana, we have 1,000 megawatts, or 1 gigawatt, of total approved capacity. This power was approved in 2022 and energized in 2024. In fiscal year 2025, we had an average load of 335 megawatts at Corsicana. The substation expansion remains on schedule to deliver our full 1 gigawatt of capacity over the next twelve months. Both Rockdale and Corsicana are fully approved sites with firm power located in some of the most attractive data center markets in the country.

This distinction gives us a major competitive advantage in today's power-constrained environment. Current timelines to procure new power within the Texas Triangle are estimated at four or more years, so having large-scale energized power today in the right locations is extraordinarily valuable. This scale of energized power is an extremely high-demand asset and forms the foundation of our financial profile. I will now turn the call over to Jason Chung to present our fiscal year 2025 financial update.

Jason Chung: Thank you, Jason. For fiscal year 2025, I am excited to present Riot Platforms, Inc.'s financial results, which demonstrate both the strength of our operating model and significant progress we have made in positioning the company for long-term value creation. For the full year, Riot Platforms, Inc. reported total revenue of $647,000,000, representing a 72% increase year over year. This substantial growth was driven primarily by strong performance in our Bitcoin mining business, which contributed $576,000,000, or 89% of total revenue, and supported by our engineering and other revenues, which contributed an additional $71,000,000, or approximately 11% of total revenue.

Our Bitcoin mining business achieved its highest annual revenue and gross profit on record, with fiscal year 2025 revenue of $576,300,000 and gross profit of $294,000,000 when including power curtailment credits. This performance reflects the scale and ongoing efficiency improvements in our operations, including our industry-leading power strategy. Net loss for the year was $663,000,000, or $1.95 per diluted share. Now it is important for investors to understand the components behind this result.

This net loss reflects several significant noncash charges and mark-to-market pricing adjustments on Bitcoin held on our balance sheet, including depreciation and amortization expense of $346,800,000, stock-based compensation expense of $125,700,000, a $158,100,000 loss on contract settlement with Rhodium, and unrealized mark-to-market adjustments on our Bitcoin holdings of $115,900,000 as required by FASB accounting standards. Non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA for the year was $13,000,000 when adjusted for noncash and unusual items. Non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA eliminates the effects of certain noncash and nonrecurring items that do not reflect our ongoing strategic business and provides investors with a clear view of our underlying operational performance.

Our net cost of power for 2025 was 3.7¢ per kilowatt-hour, representing one of the lowest power costs in our industry. Our power strategy generated power curtailment credits totaling $56,700,000 for the full year, equivalent to nearly $10,000 per Bitcoin mined. This power strategy remains a critical competitive advantage for Riot Platforms, Inc. Turning to our Bitcoin mining operational metrics, we produced 5,686 Bitcoin during 2025, equivalent to production of 15.3 Bitcoin per day on average. This represents an 18% increase compared to the 4,828 Bitcoin we produced in fiscal year 2024. We ended the year with 18,005 Bitcoin on our balance sheet, with a year-end value of $1,600,000,000, based on the closing price of $87,498 per Bitcoin on 12/31/2025.

Our hash rate deployed reached 38.5 exahash by year end, accounting for approximately 3.5% of the global network hash rate. This represents a 22% increase from the 31.5 exahash we ended fiscal year 2024 with, approximately matching the pace of global network hash rate growth and maintaining our significant share of the overall network. Our cost to mine per Bitcoin was $49,645 for 2025. While this increased from $32,216 in 2024, it is important to contextualize this in the broader industry environment. The average global network hash rate increased 47% year over year, from 630 exahash to 923 exahash.

Despite the significant increase in network difficulty, our vertical integration and power strategy continue to drive industry-leading cost efficiency relative to our peers. Hash rate utilization averaged 87% for the year, a significant improvement from 70% utilization in 2024. This improvement reflects the operational excellence initiatives our teams have implemented across our facilities. Our engineering business continues to demonstrate significant strategic value for Riot Platforms, Inc. and represents a key component of our vertical integration strategy. Engineering backlog reached a record $224,600,000 at the end of 2025, up dramatically from $55,900,000 at the end of 2024, representing a 302% increase over the course of the year.

The data center sector represents 90% of our current backlog, reflecting both the strength of industry demand and the positioning of our engineering business to capture it. ESS Metron manufactures low- and medium-voltage switchgear and power distribution centers. These are components that are essential for data center development and power distribution. As industry analysts have noted, transformer and switchgear lead times have quietly become one of the defining constraints in modern data center development. These are the hidden bottlenecks shaping 2026 project schedules industry wide. Our engineering business creates significant operational advantages for Riot Platforms, Inc.

By vertically integrating the manufacturing of these critical components, we reduce procurement risk, improve speed to market, and maintain control over equipment that is in short supply across the industry. Additionally, our servicing and maintenance expertise improves start-up and commissioning processes, enhances uptime, and extends the life cycle of our equipment. This work generates significant CapEx savings across Riot Platforms, Inc.'s development activities. Since our acquisition of ESS Metron in December 2021, Riot Platforms, Inc. has already realized $23,200,000 in cumulative CapEx savings on equipment purchases alone, and we expect these synergies to continue to scale as we expand the scope of our data center development further.

With that, I will now turn the call back over to Jason Les to discuss how all this translates to Riot Platforms, Inc.'s valuation rerating opportunity and our path forward.

Jason Les: Thank you, Jason. Slide 19 presents enterprise value per megawatt multiples across selected peers in our sector, which we view as a useful lens for how the market values power today. Riot Platforms, Inc. currently trades at approximately $2,200,000 per 2027 available megawatt. This represents a significant discount compared to peers with signed data center leases, despite us having one of the largest fully approved and readily available power portfolios in the industry. We do not just view this as a discount; we view this as a clear road map for shareholder value creation. The signing of our AMD lease is the first milestone towards a rerating of the underlying value of our power portfolio from a data center perspective.

As we continue executing our data center strategy and converting additional megawatts into contracted data center leases with creditworthy tenants, we anticipate the market will increasingly rerate the value of our assets, leading to multiple expansion on our valuation. I want to conclude today's call by reinforcing why we believe Riot Platforms, Inc. is uniquely positioned to create substantial long-term value for our shareholders. The opportunity in front of us is significant. Data center demand continues to grow rapidly, driven by the AI revolution and the accelerating need for high-density compute. At the same time, power remains the binding constraint, with timelines for new capacity extending further every year.

Riot Platforms, Inc. is on the right side of both of these trends. We control one of the most compelling fully approved power portfolios in North America, located in exactly the right markets and available for development today. Our Rockdale and Corsicana campuses, with a combined 1.7 gigawatts of firm energized power, give us a scalable strategic platform that is exceptionally difficult to replicate. As we execute our strategy, we are aiming to systematically convert that power into long-term contracted data center cash flows with creditworthy tenants. The AMD lease is an important proof point of this approach.

It validates our team, our sites, and our development model, and it is the first step in building a diversified portfolio of high-quality leases that can support potential portfolio NOI in the range of $1,600,000,000 to $2,100,000,000 upon full build-out. Our focus from here is clear. Continue to execute with discipline, deepen and expand our tenant relationships, secure attractive long-term project financing, and recycle capital into the next wave of development. As we demonstrate repeatable execution of this model, we expect the market to increasingly recognize the quality and scale of our platform and to rerate Riot Platforms, Inc.'s valuation to better reflect the strength of our underlying assets and contracted cash flows.

We are in the early innings of transforming Riot Platforms, Inc. into one of the most meaningful digital infrastructure platforms in the industry. On behalf of our entire management team, I want to thank our shareholders, our partners, and our employees for their continued support as we execute against this opportunity. Before we open the line for questions, I would like to take a moment to recognize an important leadership transition at Riot Platforms, Inc. First, I want to sincerely thank Colin M. Yee for his leadership and service as our Chief Financial Officer since 2022. Colin M.

Yee has played a vital role in strengthening Riot Platforms, Inc.'s financial foundation, building out our internal reporting infrastructure, and guiding the company through several key phases of growth. We are grateful that Colin M. Yee will continue to support Riot Platforms, Inc. as a Senior Adviser, and we look forward to benefiting from his counsel as we execute on our long-term strategy. At the same time, I am very pleased to officially welcome Jason Chung as Riot Platforms, Inc.'s new Chief Financial Officer.

Jason Chung joined Riot Platforms, Inc. in 2022 as our Head of Corporate Development and brings nearly two decades of experience in investment banking and corporate finance, and he has already been instrumental in shaping our capital markets strategy, corporate development, and investor relations efforts. Consolidating our finance and strategy functions under Jason Chung’s leadership will further align our capital allocation framework with the growth ambitions of our data center platform. With that, we will now open the call up for questions.

Jason Chung: Operator?

Operator: If you would like to ask a question at this time, please press 1-1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press 1-1 again. Our first question comes from Paul Alexander Golding with Macquarie.

Paul Alexander Golding: Thanks so much for taking my question and congrats on all the progress with delivering the first 5 megawatts. I wanted to ask around the AMD lease and how things are progressing there. Have you come away with any best practices or interesting takeaways, like gating factors on conversion with the first 5 megawatts, that you are putting to work on the next phase of delivery? And maybe as part of that question, how conversations may be progressed with the expansion and right of first refusal with AMD? And then I have a follow-up. Thank you so much.

Jason Les: Thanks for the question, Paul. I would say the first key lesson is a validation of our commercial approach, where we start the conversation with a discussion and understanding of what our customer is looking for and exactly how we are going to deliver that. We think that is an important foundation for approaching these discussions so that we ensure that we can deliver exactly what the customer is looking for on the timeline that they need. I would say that was the approach that we took with AMD, and the fact that we have been able to deliver on such an aggressive timeline is validation of that.

I think another thing it validates is the strategic advantage of our internal engineering capability. A huge part of how we were able to deliver for AMD on such an accelerated timeline was the fact that we have the internal ability to engineer and manufacture low- and medium-voltage switchgear and other important power components for data center development. So Riot Platforms, Inc.’s ESS Metron was one of the biggest suppliers to the development for the capacity that we are leasing to AMD.

I would say it is more of a validation of our approach than anything, and it is a playbook that we are looking to take for leasing to the rest of our pipeline and employ that same playbook, that same strategy, to ensure that we are giving our customers what they want, and we are meeting the timelines that we agreed to. As far as expansion goes, I do not want to comment on specific discussions, but I would say that we are very encouraged by our partnership. I believe that delivering on the initial two phases on our aggressive timeline is an important step in growing that partnership.

The way we think about the AMD relationship is not a one-off deal. We are aiming to build a sophisticated, long-term infrastructure partnership with a well-capitalized and high creditworthy company such as AMD as they build out infrastructure to support their AI road map. The only way that we can build that partnership is if we deliver and meet our commitments to our customer, AMD. That is what we are focused on there, and of course, if expansion options are realized in the future, we will be updating the market on those when those announcements can be made.

Paul Alexander Golding: Thanks, Jason. And then you did mention that you are in discussions on financing. I guess, given all the commentary in the marketplace around private credit, how are discussions progressing? Any additional color you could provide would be super helpful on available liquidity in the marketplace, cost of capital, or anything around that. Thanks so much.

Jason Les: Sure. I will turn that question over to Jason Chung, our CFO.

Jason Chung: Thank you, Jason. We have been actively engaging with a number of different banks across the board and, of course, have been keeping a close eye on developments in the debt capital markets in parallel. I think when we think about the AMD lease itself, we are really talking about two distinct risk profiles within the same lease. There is the initial stabilized portion of the deployment; second to that is the future expansion option itself.

When it comes to the first portion, that stabilized deployment, we anticipate that given the highly predictable contracted cash flows of the initial 25 megawatt deployment, backed by AMD's strong credit, we think we can get a really low cost of capital as that essentially removes development or execution risk that lenders would typically price in. Then, when it comes to the second portion on the expansion option, that could potentially be structured as a separate delayed draw–type facility specifically intended to support AMD's 75 megawatt expansion development. By separating these two distinct credit profiles, what we are able to do is avoid paying a blended construction premium across the entire facility.

We think that will result in three particular outcomes. The first is we should be able to get a significantly lower overall cost of capital on a facility like this. The second is that it will allow us to pull out our initial equity. And the third is that it will enable us to efficiently recycle that capital to finance additional growth CapEx in the future. When it comes to discussions with the banks right now, this is where our primary focus is.

We are seeing an incredible amount of liquidity and depth in the project finance markets, and we think that the interest in exploring an opportunity to partner with Riot Platforms, Inc. on this type of facility is very strong. Thank you both.

Operator: Our next question comes from John Todaro with Needham & Company.

John Todaro: Hey, thanks for taking my question and congrats on the progress with AMD and then also on the additional stuff going on at Corsicana. I was wondering if we could just drill a little bit more into that leasing pipeline, the demand environment, how those conversations have evolved, and any timeline guardrails or just how advanced those discussions are? And then I have a follow-up as well.

Jason Les: Sure, John. To set the stage, we have 1.7 gigawatts of approved power in Texas, and as we see the industry develop, that asset becomes more scarce and more appreciating. Our responsibility to shareholders is to maximize the value of that capacity, and that is what we are focused on. I want to zoom out and reflect on the road map that we have been on. On our second quarter 2025 earnings call, we outlined that the next step we were doing was completing our basis of design, and that would lead to technical discussions with the market.

Then on our third quarter 2025 earnings call, we shared our basis of design that had been completed and that we were initiating technical engineering discussions with various customer segments. We have done that. We have been able to enhance our design as a result of those discussions, and now we are in the commercial phase. We are in active conversations with multiple parties. That is across hyperscaler, enterprise, neo-cloud, and AI customer segments. The AMD deal validated us as a credible counterparty, and I would say that has materially increased the quality and the seriousness of the inbound interest that we have received. Of course, it is difficult to predict the exact timing for leases. We are prepared.

These deals can go through different phases. We have heard our peers talk about it stopping and starting with various different deals before they got to the final one. We are absolutely targeting additional announcements in 2026. We believe we are incredibly well positioned to execute on that, and we will disclose more details when we are in a position to do so.

John Todaro: That is great. That is very helpful. I know from the prepared remarks, you said these sites could go single-tenant or multi-tenant. Is there a preference from you? Do you want to mix in a couple of these different segments, or, you know, hyperscaler does have demand for the whole thing. Would you prefer that?

Jason Les: That is a good question. In the prepared remarks, what we wanted to highlight is that we have the flexibility here. The way our campuses are laid out, they can be single-tenant, or they can be multi-tenant. We have optionality to maximize the value of our assets here. That being said, our focus is on high creditworthy counterparties. While we have the flexibility to accommodate multi-tenant, I can tell you all of the real interest so far from potential customers has been for the entire site. I tend to believe that is the most likely outcome for a leasing scenario at Corsicana. Perhaps it ends up being different in the end. Perhaps there is a mix at Rockdale.

The important thing is getting good-quality leases with good-quality counterparties, and we have flexibility in how we put that together to create the final tenant composition of a site, whether it is one or more tenants.

John Todaro: Got it. Sounds good. Very helpful. Thank you. Appreciate it.

Jason Les: Thank you.

Operator: Our next question comes from Reginald Lawrence Smith with JPMorgan. Reginald, your line may be on mute. Our next question will come from Michael John Grondahl with Northland.

Michael John Grondahl: Hey, guys. Thank you. With all the questions around ERCOT recently, I believe Riot Platforms, Inc.'s power is approved at Corsicana, but can you confirm that? And then, secondly, does ERCOT’s batch process affect Riot Platforms, Inc. in any way going forward, positively or negatively?

Jason Les: Thanks for the question, Mike. The short answer to your question: the power at Corsicana has been completely approved. We received that approval back in 2022. That site is in operation and received the approvals back then, and we are fully available to scale up to our 1 gigawatt from there when we are ready. The batch process does not impact Riot Platforms, Inc. The new ERCOT batch process that was proposed, not implemented, pertained to loads that had been in different stages of the planning or approval process already before final approval and certainly before energization.

That would affect new sites that have not been energized and would not impact Riot Platforms, Inc.’s sites that have been approved for years and have already been in operation. We think that just further validates the value of these sites, the fact that they are already approved, and we do not have that same level of risk for them.

Michael John Grondahl: Great. Thanks, guys.

Operator: Our next question comes from Stephen William Glagola with KBW.

Stephen William Glagola: Hey, thanks for the question. Just a quick one from me. On the financing side, can you talk about how Bitcoin sales are going to continue or not continue to play a role in funding the CapEx going forward here?

Jason Les: Stephen, I will turn that over to Jason Chung.

Jason Chung: Thanks, Jason. On our financing plan, our funding hierarchy, if you will, starts with the Bitcoin treasury. In addition to selling all of our ongoing Bitcoin monthly production, we have and will continue to sell Bitcoin directly from our balance sheet in order to fund our operational needs and growth CapEx. One clear example of this was when we announced the acquisition of the Rockdale site; the $96,000,000 consideration was funded entirely through the sale of nearly 1,100 Bitcoin off the balance sheet. We will continue to do so going forward.

That being said, our strategic evolution towards data center development also opens up access to new pools of low-cost capital, so you should expect to see us look to tap into these lower-cost, nondilutive debt structures as well to fund our build-out in conjunction with our Bitcoin sales off the balance sheet. We believe this combination is the most accretive financing strategy for shareholders going forward.

Stephen William Glagola: Great. Thank you.

Operator: Our next question comes from Nicholas Giles with B. Riley Securities.

Nicholas Giles: Great. Thanks, Operator. I want to commend Colin and congratulate you, Jason Chung, on your appointment. My question was really just how you are thinking about M&A of new sites and how that could have shifted recently. Have these ERCOT developments changed things? Some of your peers are either talking about or have already taken action towards adding generation capabilities on-site. Is that something you would consider, or are you really only interested in opportunities with greater interconnection or ones that really do not require you to operate the generating asset? Thanks.

Jason Les: Yeah, Nick. Thanks for the question. As far as developing pipeline goes, there was a question earlier about the ERCOT batch process. Besides that, we have seen it becoming increasingly difficult for new grid interconnections to be approved. That tends to be a double-edged sword in our case. On one hand, that makes it harder to get new grid interconnections approved. On the other hand, it makes our massive existing portfolio already that much more valuable. When we think about our pipeline, the first thing that we are mindful of is we have a massive pipeline in front of us. We have 1.7 gigawatts just between Rockdale and Corsicana, two mega flagship sites that we are able to act on.

That is an enormous value creation opportunity for Riot Platforms, Inc. in and of itself. That being said, we are thinking for the long term, not just trying to monetize two sites here. We are building a durable platform, a durable data center business. We want to have a repeatable process for future sites, repeat the process like we have demonstrated with AMD. We have been evaluating an enormous amount of opportunities. You can imagine there is a lot out there. It goes through a very intensive process within our organization, and we filter down to a few, and we are now involved in several active processes to acquire potential new developments.

I think you raise a really good point on generation. The environment that we are in, where it is difficult to procure additional power capacity, means that you need to be more creative in how you are solving that problem. It cannot just be relying on grid power. The future of this industry is clearly bringing your own power. That is an area where I think Riot Platforms, Inc. has a tremendous advantage. A lot of our engineering team and operations team come from a generation background.

I can tell you this is something we are looking at very closely and taking very seriously and using all of the resources at our disposal to help build that durable pipeline for us to continue replicating our success.

Nicholas Giles: Great. I appreciate that perspective. My second question was, you have proven your ability to generate revenue very quickly through the AMD contract. That being said, there is still a really high degree of urgency in the market around other megawatts. My question is, are there ways that you could accelerate the ultimate energization of data center megawatts in either asset? We kind of have the 112 megawatt target at Corsicana, but can you give us a sense for maybe how many energized data center megawatts could be brought online by 2027? Thanks.

Jason Les: Nick, the very reason that we initiated on that core and shell development without a lease in hand was to ensure that we could deliver capacity starting in 2027 and be very competitive with our offering there. Those first two buildings are just the beginning. We are obviously in a commercial process, and we are out there marketing, attempting to lease the entire site, and ultimately we will have a build strategy reflective of what our customer requirements are. We have processes underway to further enhance our ability to deliver timely. We have begun procuring long-lead equipment. In fact, we procured most of the more supply-constrained long-lead equipment that you would need for those first two buildings.

When we are having commercial discussions, it is not about 112; it is about how we are delivering the full capacity, the 1 gigawatt of utility load available at that site, and those are just the initial parts of that deployment. We are ensuring we can be very competitive with a delivery timeline.

Nicholas Giles: Great. I appreciate all the detail, and keep up the good work.

Operator: Our next question comes from Reginald Lawrence Smith with JPMorgan.

Reginald Lawrence Smith: Thanks for taking the question. My first question is kind of a follow-up to the last point you made, Jason. Obviously, you guys have a massive site; it is right outside of Dallas, and your peers have talked about contract terms and discussions seeming to be getting better where operators are getting better and better economics. The question for you is, thinking about that site—and something I have been telling investors for a while now, I want to verify—your proximity to Dallas: is there a premium, or can you extract or get a premium for that proximity? How do you think about valuing that element of it?

Even the size of the site—there are not many gigawatt sites for lease up there. How do you think about those features of your property and how you can price for that? Obviously, you are dealing with top-tier tenants; there is some negotiation and back and forth there. Anything you could share about how you think about that and how it should show up in any deal that you may sign?

Jason Les: Reggie, thank you for the question. The attributes of sites, the sizes, the proximity to tier-one markets—Corsicana in particular—it is not as much an impact on deal economics. While I think there is some impact there, the bigger point is the impact it has on the types of tenants that we are able to attract there. The types of tenants that we want to enter into leases with, the types that we can get strong financing and the best valuation multiples off of, are the tenants that are more selective on location. They are looking to be placed closer to the tier-one market. That, I think, is the biggest factor there.

It widens the doors of the conversations that we are able to have to the best names out there.

Reginald Lawrence Smith: Got it. That makes sense. If I could get one follow-up: thinking about milestones, both on the development side and on contract discussions, what are some of the key things that maybe internally you are looking for on the contract side that let you know that this is progressing? Maybe educate us on how those discussions progress and play out. On the development side, what should we be looking for over the next couple of quarters to let us know that the site is being developed on time? Anything you can share there would be fantastic. Thank you.

Jason Les: An important indicator of the seriousness of discussions is how much they go to a technical product discussion and how quickly they do. I think that is a strong indicator of how serious the counterparty is about moving forward. That is why we have taken the approach that we have. We wanted to ensure that we had a technically sound offering, a product that hyperscaler and high creditworthy investment-grade tenants were looking for. The level of technical interest and the level of details that we are getting into, for us, is a signal of the seriousness of what is going on. We are very focused on leasing these sites with the right agreements as quickly as we can.

We have been cautious to keep our optionality open. We are engaging with multiple counterparties at once to ensure that we can move along in a timely fashion and deliver a high-quality outcome for shareholders as quickly as we can.

Reginald Lawrence Smith: Got it. Thank you.

Operator: Our last question comes from the line of Gregory Robert Lewis with BTIG.

Gregory Robert Lewis: Hey, thank you and good afternoon. Thanks for squeezing me in here. I guess, Jason, you mentioned it a few times on the call about the benefits of ESS Metron and that acquisition. I would be curious—it is clearly good to have that inside the portfolio—but as we try to think about the benefits of ESS Metron, is that more of a speed-to-market, or could we actually also see it potentially make projects more economically compelling, i.e., lower upfront costs, maybe, than some of your competitors?

Jason Les: That is a good question, Greg. For us, the main benefit has been strategic and supply chain visibility. I touched on it in the earlier question from Paul about delivering for AMD. The only way that we were able to deliver on the timeline that AMD needed was having this internal engineering and manufacturing capability where we could develop a customized solution and prioritize that over all other work out there. No other third-party OEM would be able to do that for Riot Platforms, Inc., or would want to do that for Riot Platforms, Inc. It has really changed what we are able to offer as solutions for customers.

From the recruiting standpoint, building a high-quality team here is obviously very important for delivery and execution on the data center strategy. A lot of the talent that we have recruited has been particularly compelled and interested by the capabilities that we have with ESS Metron and E-4-A. The people that live and execute this for us certainly see the benefit of this as well. Supply chain strategic, but there is a cost savings there as well. On one of our slides, we showed that since we acquired ESS Metron, we have saved approximately $23,000,000 on CapEx since that acquisition.

We did that acquisition four years ago for approximately $45,200,000 in consideration, and we have nearly recouped half of that already just in CapEx savings. Those savings have only been realized on relatively smaller-scale Bitcoin mining developments and now the AMD development as well. When you talk about the broader development in front of us—building out 1 gigawatt of utility capacity at Corsicana, then eventually all 700 megawatts of capacity at Rockdale—that is substantially more business than we have done with ESS Metron in the past. Presumably, the CapEx savings would be even more considerable over the term of that larger and longer-term project.

Gregory Robert Lewis: Okay. Super helpful. Thank you guys very much. Have a nice night.

Joshua Kane: Thanks, Greg.

Operator: That concludes today's question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the call back to Jason Les for closing remarks.

Jason Les: I want to thank all of our shareholders, investors, and analysts for coming on to our call today. We appreciate all the questions. Material is available on our website, and our IR team is available for any follow-up questions. We look forward to continuing to execute on the incredible opportunity in front of us, and we will speak with you again next quarter.

Operator: This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect. Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Riot Platforms, Inc.'s fiscal year 2025 earnings conference call. Please note that all participants have been placed in listen-only mode until the question and answer. Please also be advised that today's call is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to Joshua Kane, Head of Investor Relations at Riot Platforms, Inc. Please go ahead.

Jason Chung: Thank you, Operator.

Joshua Kane: Good afternoon, and welcome to Riot Platforms, Inc.'s fiscal year 2025 earnings conference call. My name is Joshua Kane, Head of Investor Relations, and joining me on today's call from Riot Platforms, Inc. are Jason Les, Chief Executive Officer, and Jason Chung, Chief Financial Officer. On the Riot Platforms, Inc. Investor Relations website, you can find our fiscal year 2025 earnings press release and accompanying earnings presentation, which are intended to supplement today's prepared remarks and which include a discussion of certain non-GAAP items.

Non-GAAP financial measures provided should not be considered as a substitute for or superior to the measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with GAAP and are included as additional clarifying items to aid investors in further understanding the company's fiscal year 2025 performance. Forward-looking statements may include, but are not limited to, statements that predict future events or trends, forecast our performance, and may contain words such as believe, expect, intend, project, and plan, or words or phrases with similar meaning.

Actual results can materially differ due to factors discussed in today's earnings press release and comments and responses made during today's call and in the Risk Factors section of our Form 10-K for the year ended 12/31/2025, which will be filed later today, as well as other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. With that, I will turn the call over to Jason Les, CEO of Riot Platforms, Inc.

Jason Les: Thank you, Josh. 2025 was a transformational year for Riot Platforms, Inc. It was the year we fundamentally repositioned this company to be at the forefront of the data center industry. Today, I am exceptionally proud to share the significant milestones we have achieved and outline the path forward as we continue executing on our strategy to maximize the value of our power portfolio for shareholders. Riot Platforms, Inc. has evolved from a Bitcoin mining company with data center potential into a proven data center developer with a track record of rapid execution. I would like to take a minute now to walk through some of the key achievements that made 2025 truly transformational for Riot Platforms, Inc.