Riot Anthropic Interest: 12% Clause in the $28B Lease
The Riot Anthropic interest term is the part of the $28 billion Corsicana lease nobody noticed on day one. CoinDesk reports, citing Riot’s Q3 10-Q, that Anthropic can recover eligible module costs by deducting them from future rent, plus interest at 12% a year. We cover the lease itself in our Riot bitcoin sale write-up. Here, we look at the fine print on the Riot Anthropic interest.
What the Riot Anthropic interest clause says
The lease covers 910 MW at Riot’s Corsicana, Texas campus for a 15-year initial term, valued at about $28 billion, per CoinDesk. Average rent is expected to reach about $1.8 billion a year once fully operational. Riot supplies land and electrical infrastructure. Anthropic installs and runs the computing equipment.
CoinDesk puts the project cost at roughly $5.5 billion, per Riot’s earnings presentation. About $1.8 billion is Riot’s own site and electrical work. Meanwhile, up to $3.6 billion reimburses Anthropic for its data center facilities. Those reimbursements depend on actual eligible costs and fall due after each phase is delivered and starts earning rent.
One caveat. A filing summary relayed by KuCoin News and others frames the 12% as applying if Riot cannot secure financing on acceptable terms. CoinDesk’s wording is less specific. Also, neither gives the final net rent after deductions, and CoinDesk says it has asked Riot. Read the 10-Q before you quote a number to anyone.
How big could the Riot Anthropic interest get?
Our arithmetic, not a reported figure: 12% simple interest on $3.6 billion is about $432 million a year, if the whole amount sat outstanding for a year. So that is roughly 24% of the $1.8 billion average rent. It would not run at that level for 15 years, since the reimbursement is paid down as rent is deducted. However, it shows why Riot wants lender money instead. CoinDesk says Riot plans to borrow most of the cost, assuming lenders cover 80% to 90%, and that the process starts in 2027. Riot says it does not currently expect to issue new shares.
The bitcoin side of the trade
Riot has sold most of its coins to get here. Per CoinDesk, it sold 20,264 BTC for about $1.5 billion in the first nine months of 2026 and held 2,418 BTC at the end of September. It expects to keep selling substantially all newly mined coins. Crypto Briefing hedged on the tenant’s name, but CoinDesk reads the filing as naming Anthropic.
Miner math: what Riot leaving bitcoin means for your margin today
Here is the live maths on November 5. Bitcoin is $80,233 and the network is 1024 EH/s, so hashprice is about $35.46 per petahash per day. That is what one PH/s of hashing earns before power.
| Machine | 5c/kWh | 8c/kWh | 12c/kWh | Break-even |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Antminer S19 (95 TH/s, 3250 W) | -$0.53 | -$2.87 | -$5.99 | 4.3c |
| Antminer S19k Pro (115 TH/s, 2645 W) | $0.90 | -$1.00 | -$3.54 | 6.4c |
| Antminer S19 XP (141 TH/s, 3010 W) | $1.39 | -$0.78 | -$3.67 | 6.9c |
| Antminer S21 Pro (234 TH/s, 3510 W) | $4.09 | $1.56 | -$1.81 | 9.9c |
Numbers are profit per day after electricity, at the three power prices shown. Break-even is the most you can pay per kilowatt-hour before the machine loses money. Specs are the manufacturer ratings; network data comes from mempool.space. Try your own power price in our free bitcoin mining profit calculator. See what these machines really sold for in our used ASIC miner price index. Want to run the same numbers on a machine you can buy today? See our used ASIC miners, or buy several at once through bulk lots.
If a big public miner stops adding hashrate and network hashrate slips 2%: the break-even power price on an S19k Pro rises from 6.4 to 6.6 cents per kilowatt-hour. At 8 cents, daily profit goes from -$1.00 to -$0.92.
The blunt answer for miners
Riot’s move does not change your hashprice today. Network hashrate sits near 1024 EH/s per mempool.space, and the table shows who loses money at your power price. Still, it shows where the smart capital goes. A listed miner is choosing 15 years of contracted rent over the hashprice. Also, if your power is dear and your machines are old, you have the same choice in small form. Look at our we buy used miners page, or read the mining economics guides.
-Nick
ING Mining
This is general information, not financial advice. Crypto is volatile, and exchanges can fail. Please do your own research.
How this story was made: drafted with the help of AI tools from public sources, then edited by Nick Squires. See our editorial policy. Spot an error? Email ns@ingmining.com.