Riot Platforms (NASDAQ:RIOT) could have nearly 80% upside as its artificial intelligence infrastructure business increasingly overtakes Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) mining as the company’s primary value driver, according to a Bernstein note on Tuesday.

Anthropic Deal as Key Driver

Bernstein analysts led by Gautam Chhugani raised their price target on Riot to $35 from $30, maintaining an Outperform rating after the company signed a $9.1 billion data center agreement with a “leading frontier AI lab,” reportedly Anthropic.

The 20-year colocation agreement is expected to generate around $457 million in annual recurring revenue.

Bernstein estimates the contract could produce annual net operating income of between $365 million and $411 million, with required capital expenditure of approximately $2.1 billion to $2.3 billion.

Riot has also secured a $573 million interim financing facility from Morgan Stanley to fund initial equipment procurement, The Block reported.

The economics of the latest agreement prompted Bernstein to significantly upgrade its assumptions for Riot’s AI colocation operations.

Bernstein estimates Riot will need another $3.7 billion of secured financing, equivalent to roughly 90% of the project capital expenditure required under its modeled buildout.

Financing requirements, construction execution and Riot’s geographic concentration in Texas remain key risks.

Are Bitcoin Miners Shifting Strategy?

Riot’s transformation also has implications for its Bitcoin strategy.

The company held 11,380 BTC as of June 30, worth around $731.5 million at current prices, down from a peak holding of 19,368 BTC.

Bernstein noted that Riot has been selling Bitcoin production and reserves to help finance its data center expansion.

The shift illustrates how some Bitcoin miners are increasingly treating their large power portfolios as infrastructure for AI and high-performance computing rather than relying exclusively on cryptocurrency mining economics.

On similar lines, MARA Holdings (NASDAQ:MARA) and CleanSpark (NASDAQ:CLSK) are also expanding into high-performance computing to capitalize on AI demand and diversify as Bitcoin mining becomes increasingly difficult.

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