Riot Platforms has acquired land for $96 million to expand into AI, following a record BTC sale. CleanSpark and CoreWeave also expand their operations.
Riot Platforms, a prominent Bitcoin mining company, has purchased 81 acres near its Rockdale, Texas data center for $96 million, marking a significant step in its expansion into AI technology.
Riot stated, "We’re excited to share a series of transformative transactions that firmly establish our rapidly scaling data center business..." — Riot Platforms, Inc. (@RiotPlatforms) January 16, 2026
This acquisition was funded by the company's own resources. In December, Riot made headlines by selling a record 1,080 BTC, while mining 460 BTC that month.
Riot now owns the land that was previously leased, enhancing its operational footprint.
As part of its partnership with Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Riot plans to integrate AI computing capabilities at the site between January and May 2026, eventually offering AMD access to 200 MW of power. Riot has another 700 MW of contracted capacity available.
CEO Jason Les expressed satisfaction with the company's growth, noting, "I am pleased to announce significant progress that expands our fully approved power portfolio for data centers to 1.7 GW..."
CleanSpark Expands Its Footprint
In a related development, Bitcoin miner CleanSpark has completed an agreement to acquire 181 acres in Brazoria County, Texas. This deal aims to boost its computing capacity by 600 MW and is expected to finalize in the first quarter of 2026.
CEO Matt Schultz remarked, "The demand for scalable, AI-native computing continues to accelerate..."
CoreWeave's AI Expansion
Infrastructure AI service provider CoreWeave has deployed 16,000 GPUs in Texas to support AI startup OpenAI. The Denton facility, which faced installation delays, is transitioning from Bitcoin mining to AI services, backed by a $6.1 billion investment.
Additionally, Google has acquired a stake in Cipher Mining and has become the largest shareholder in TeraWulf, further indicating the tech giant's growing interest in the crypto mining sector.
