Activist investor Starboard says Riot AI pivot could be worth up to $21 billion as miner lags peers

Activist investor Starboard Value sent a letter to Riot Platforms' leadership, asserting that the company's pivot toward artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure could unlock $9 billion to $21 billion in equity value, significantly dwarfing its current market capitalization. Starboard praised Riot for starting this transformation, citing the AMD agreement as a proof of concept, but stressed that execution must accelerate to monetize its power-rich data center sites, like those in Texas, which have substantial available capacity.

The firm noted that Riot is lagging behind rivals such as Bitfarms, Hive Digital, CleanSpark, and Cipher Mining, which have aggressively repositioned themselves as AI data center operators, leading to much higher stock performance over the past year. Starboard believes Riot's existing infrastructure at Corsicana and Rockdale is highly attractive due to existing large-scale power access.

Starboard concluded by suggesting that if Riot struggles with the transition, its assets could become an attractive target for consolidation within the industry.

(Source：The Block)