Analysts at research and brokerage firm Bernstein raised their price target for bitcoin miner-turned-AI infrastructure provider Riot Platforms (RIOT) to $35 from $30 while maintaining an Outperform rating after it signed a $9.1 billion data center agreement with a "leading frontier AI lab" reported to be Anthropic.
Riot shares rose more than 27% in pre-market trading on Tuesday at one point before paring gains to around $22.60, according to The Block's RIOT price page. Bernstein's 12-month target implies around 80% upside potential from Monday's closing price of $19.40.
RIOT/USD price chart. Image: TradingView.
The 20-year colocation lease covers 191 IT megawatts at Riot's Rockdale campus in Texas and is expected to generate $457 million in annual recurring revenue, according to Bernstein. IT MW measures the actual electrical power consumed solely by IT equipment, like servers and network switches, excluding the energy required for facility cooling, lighting, and infrastructure.
In a note to clients on Tuesday, the firm's analysts led by Gautam Chhugani estimated average annual net operating income between $365 million and $411 million, with capital expenditure of $2.1 billion to $2.3 billion. Riot has also secured a $573 million interim facility from Morgan Stanley to fund early equipment procurement, the analysts noted.
