The company was founded on July 24, 2000, and was originally known as Bioptix. For almost two decades, the company operated in the life sciences sector, specializing in diagnostic machinery and veterinary medical products.
It became a public company in January 2003. In October 2017, the company abruptly changed its name to Riot Blockchain, signaling a complete pivot toward cryptocurrency mining. Since that time, Riot's core business has centered around self-mining Bitcoin using specialized application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) chips.
As of late 2025, it maintained a massive Bitcoin treasury, holding more than 19,200 Bitcoin valued at approximately $1.7 billion to $2.2 billion, depending on market fluctuations. Riot Platforms is currently undergoing a significant strategic pivot from being a pure-play Bitcoin miner to a broader data center operator with artificial intelligence (AI) and high-Performance computing (HPC) capabilities.
The company operates some of the largest Bitcoin mining and digital infrastructure facilities in North America, including its Rockdale and Corsicana facilities in Texas. The company is currently building out its Corsicana site, which is projected to be one of the world's largest dedicated facilities for Bitcoin mining and HPC when fully developed. The sites provide the power and cooling capacity needed to run thousands of mining rigs.
Through its engineering segment, Riot designs and manufactures custom electrical products, such as switchgear and power distribution equipment, which are used both internally and sold to external commercial and utility customers. The company is currently developing its facilities to support blue chip tenants in the AI and enterprise data center sectors.
Riot uses a demand response strategy, especially in markets like Texas. During periods of peak electricity demand (like heatwaves), the company has paused its mining operations and sold its pre-purchased energy back to the grid, often earning millions in power credits that significantly lower its overall operational costs.
If you want to know how to buy shares of Riot Platforms stock, whether it's profitable, and more, you've come to the right place.
How to buy Riot Platforms stock
Here are the steps you need to follow if you want to buy shares of Riot Platforms stock.
- Open your brokerage account: Log in to your brokerage account where you handle your investments.
- Search for the stock: Enter the ticker or company name into the search bar to bring up the stock's trading page.
- Decide how many shares to buy: Consider your investment goals and how much of your portfolio you want to allocate to this stock.
- Select order type: Choose between a market order to buy at the current price or a limit order to specify the maximum price you're willing to pay.
- Submit your order: Confirm the details and submit your buy order.
- Review your purchase: Check your portfolio to ensure your order was filled as expected and adjust your investment strategy accordingly.
Should I invest in Riot Platforms?
Whether you should invest in Riot Platforms will depend on your investment preferences and risk tolerance. It's important to understand the business model and financial performance of this company before you invest money.
The company is actively transitioning to diversify its revenue streams beyond just Bitcoin mining, but this currently remains the primary and largest source of Riot's revenue. Riot Platforms' full-year 2024 revenue totaled $376.7 million, up 34% from 2023, and revenue in the third quarter of 2025 came to $180.2 million, more than double its revenue from Q3 2024.
Riot operates large-scale mining facilities in Texas and Kentucky, leveraging fixed-price power contracts and participating in demand response programs to manage energy costs and generate power credits. This segment is the main cash-flow generator used to fund the company's expansion plans.
Riot is actively pivoting to become a significant player in the data center market to meet the growing demand for AI and cloud computing capacity. The company is developing its large Corsicana campus in Texas with build-to-suit data centers designed for hyperscale and enterprise tenants, with initial buildings expected to be fully delivered around 2027.
Through its engineering and fabrication facilities in Denver and Houston, Riot designs and builds its own electrical infrastructure, which realizes significant capital expenditure savings and gives it more control over its supply chain. This division also has a growing backlog, largely from the data center sector.
The company's core long-term strategy revolves around monetizing its substantial power and land assets. By controlling a large power portfolio, Riot can shift power capacity between its mining operations and higher-value data center services, depending on market conditions.
Bear in mind, Riot's stock price is heavily influenced by the volatile price of Bitcoin. The stock often lags behind Bitcoin during a bull run but is highly exposed to downside during price drops.
Riot has consistently reported negative operating cash flow and has often had to use stock issuance (which dilutes the value for existing shareholders) along with debt to fund its capital-intensive data center expansion and operations.
The pivot to AI/HPC data centers is still in its early stages and requires years of substantial capital investments before generating meaningful, diversified revenue, so there's still significant execution risk.
Is Riot Platforms profitable?
Yes, Riot Platforms is profitable under generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). In 2024, the company reported net income of $109.4 million. In Q3 2025, the company delivered net income of $104.5 million, compared to a net loss of $154.4 million in the prior year. However, it consistently reports negative free cash flow due to substantial capital expenditures for its expansion plans.
Does Riot Platforms pay a dividend?
No, Riot Platforms does not currently pay a dividend. The last time the company issued a dividend was a one-time special cash payment of $1.00 per share in October 2017.
As a company in the Bitcoin mining and data center development sector, Riot Platforms is currently focusing on reinvesting its earnings into growth opportunities and the expansion of its operations, rather than distributing profits to shareholders via dividends.
Will Riot Platforms stock split?
Riot Platforms has split its stock before, with its most recent split being a 1:8 reverse stock split in 2016. As for future splits, there's no current announcement for a new split, and given that the stock is trading for less than $20 a share, it is unlikely to do so anytime soon.
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The bottom line on Riot Platforms
If you want to invest in a leading Bitcoin miner and believe that Riot Platforms can successfully transition to being a large-scale data center operator, it may be worth purchasing shares. This is likely an investment only for the most risk-tolerant of long-term investors, and if you don't fit that profile, you may want to look elsewhere.
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