Riot Secures $573 Million Loan Facility for Rockdale AI Data Center
Riot Platforms (NASDAQ: RIOT) has secured access to as much as $573 million of project-level debt to buy equipment and fund development of a 191-megawatt AI data center at its Rockdale, Texas, campus.
The senior secured delayed-draw term loan was arranged for Riot DC Logistics LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary, according to a regulatory filing Friday. Morgan Stanley Senior Funding Inc. is administrative agent for the group of lenders.
Riot said the proceeds are intended for long-lead and other project equipment, along with certain expenses associated with the 191 MW facility. The financing provides the former bitcoin miner with a substantial new source of capital as it works to convert its power-rich sites into infrastructure for artificial intelligence computing.
Borrowings will carry interest at adjusted term SOFR plus 2.75 percentage points or, at Riot’s election, a base rate plus 1.75 percentage points. Based on a term SOFR rate of about 3.65%, the SOFR option implies an all-in annual rate of approximately 6.4%, excluding fees and subject to changes in the benchmark. The loans mature Dec. 31, 2026, about four and a half months after the facility became available on Aug. 10.
The short maturity makes the facility a source of near-term construction and equipment funding rather than long-dated project debt. Riot didn’t disclose how much had been drawn, the size of the undrawn fee or the identities of the lenders other than Morgan Stanley’s agent role.
The facility is secured by substantially all the assets of the borrower and related project entities. Those entities, rather than Riot’s listed parent company, guarantee the debt. Lenders generally have no recourse to Riot Platforms or other parent companies, except under customary provisions covering matters including fraud, willful misrepresentation and misappropriation of collateral proceeds.
The financing follows Riot’s announcement of a 20-year lease covering 191 MW of critical information-technology capacity at Rockdale. Riot has said the contract with an unidentified “leading frontier AI lab” is expected to produce about $9.1 billion of revenue during its initial term and as much as $16.1 billion if two five-year extensions are exercised. Bloomberg News reported that the customer is Anthropic.
Rockdale has 700 MW of approved and energized power capacity, according to Riot’s website. The company bought the roughly 200 acres beneath the campus for $96 million in January, financing that purchase by selling about 1,080 bitcoin.
The site already hosts a separate data center deployment for Advanced Micro Devices Inc. Riot’s initial agreement with AMD covered 25 MW and was expected to generate about $311 million over 10 years, with estimated retrofit spending of $89.8 million. AMD subsequently contracted for another 25 MW. The original AMD agreement gave the chipmaker expansion and first-refusal rights covering as much as 200 MW.
The new facility is separate from Riot’s $200 million credit arrangement with Coinbase Credit Inc. That loan was fully drawn as of March 31 and was extended in April to mature in April 2027.
Riot has historically relied heavily on equity issuance and its bitcoin holdings to finance expansion. The Morgan Stanley-led facility marks a further shift toward secured debt as the company undertakes the larger capital commitments required to develop data centers for AI customers.
