Activist investor Starboard Value is urging bitcoin miner Riot Platforms to accelerate its pivot into artificial intelligence and high-performance computing. In a public letter, Starboard claimed Riot’s Texas data center sites could generate between $9 billion and $21 billion in equity value, pressing the company to secure more deals urgently.
An activist shareholder in Riot Platforms is pushing the cryptocurrency mining company to speed up its strategic shift toward high-performance computing and artificial intelligence. In a Wednesday letter, Starboard Value, which holds about 12.7 million shares, stated that the company’s Texas sites could contribute between $9 billion and $21 billion in equity value from AI and HPC data centers.
The investor emphasized that “time is of the essence” for securing more material deals. Starboard pointed to Riot Platforms‘ primary sites in Corsicana and Rockdale, Texas, which are attractive due to low energy costs and favorable regulations.
Following the letter’s release, Riot‘s share price surged nearly 6% at the Nasdaq market open. The company recently announced a data center lease and services agreement with Advanced Micro Devices, which Starboard called a “small proof of concept.”
“We believe Riot should be able to attract high-quality tenants for tier-3 data centers with terms similar to or better than the peer transactions announced towards the end of 2025,” Starboard said. The shareholder noted that Riot has 1.4 gigawatts of gross capacity remaining to be monetized.
Riot Platforms is part of a broader industry trend where Bitcoin miners are diversifying. Companies including CleanSpark, Core Scientific, Hut 8, and TeraWulf have repurposed infrastructure or announced plans to move toward AI.
Another miner, Cango, recently sold $305 million worth of its Bitcoin holdings partly to fund a planned expansion into AI and HPC. This shift comes as mining difficulty and operational costs continue to rise across the sector.
