Riot Platforms Sells 1,818 Bitcoin in December to Raise $161.6 Million as Company Shifts Strategy Toward AI and Data Center Infrastructure

Riot Platforms made waves in December when it sold 1,818 Bitcoin for $161.6 million, averaging roughly $88,870 per coin.

The move is part of a bigger shift for the company, which is pivoting away from purely mining Bitcoin toward monetizing its power and data center infrastructure, including plans to support artificial intelligence workloads.

The sale marks a notable moment in Riot’s evolution, signaling the company’s ambition to leverage its energy-intensive assets in new ways beyond cryptocurrency.

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Bitcoin Holdings Update

By the end of December, Riot held 18,005 Bitcoin, including 3,977 that are classified as restricted—coins pledged as collateral under debt agreements and held in segregated custody accounts.

This is down from 19,368 Bitcoin at the end of November, even as the company produced 460 new BTC during the month.

Riot also announced that December would be the last time it provides a monthly Bitcoin production and operations update.

Going forward, the company will shift to quarterly disclosures that focus on broader business performance, data center strategy, and Bitcoin mining progress.

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From Bitcoin Mining to AI Powerhouses

Riot first signaled this pivot in October, stating that Bitcoin mining was no longer the company’s ultimate goal.

Instead, it plans to repurpose its energy infrastructure to support a proposed 1-gigawatt AI data center campus.

The decision reflects a growing trend in the mining sector.

As mining costs rise—especially following the April 2024 Bitcoin halving, which cut block rewards in half—miners are looking for new ways to generate revenue.

AI and tech workloads are emerging as a prime opportunity.

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Why Bitcoin Miners Are Attracting AI Companies

Bitcoin miners operate some of the most energy-dense data centers in the world, with vast electrical and computing capacity.

That makes them attractive partners for AI companies, which need large-scale, high-performance computing infrastructure.

Recent partnerships highlight this shift: In August, Google became the largest shareholder of TeraWulf, taking about 14% of shares while backing a 10-year colocation lease with Fluidstack for AI workloads.

In September, Google also acquired a 5.4% stake in Cipher Mining as part of a $3 billion, multi-year data center deal with Fluidstack.

Meanwhile, IREN signed a five-year, $9.7 billion GPU cloud services agreement with Microsoft to host Nvidia GB300 GPUs, and the top Bitcoin miner by market cap announced a $5.8 billion deal with Dell Technologies for GPUs and equipment to support AI deployment.

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Mining Meets Technology in a Changing Market

Riot’s transition underscores a broader trend where cryptocurrency mining and AI infrastructure intersect.

As the economics of Bitcoin mining become more challenging, companies are exploring hybrid business models—combining cryptocurrency, cloud computing, and AI—to maximize the value of their energy and data center assets.

By leveraging its existing infrastructure, Riot is positioning itself not just as a Bitcoin miner but as a technology partner for AI, signaling a potential new chapter for the industry as a whole.