Riot Platforms (RIOT) reported its first-quarter results after the close on Thursday, and the numbers were a mixed bag. Revenue came in at $167.2 million, well above the $130.8 million analysts were expecting. But the bottom line told a different story: a loss of $1.44 per share, much worse than the anticipated loss of 44 cents per share.
The company mined 1,473 Bitcoin (BTC) during the quarter, down from 1,530 in the same period last year. The average cost to mine each Bitcoin was $44,629. That's a lot of electricity and hardware for a digital coin.
But the real headline might be Riot's new business line. For the first time, the company reported data center revenue—$33.2 million—as it shifts focus from pure Bitcoin mining to AI infrastructure. CEO Jason Les called the quarter "a definitive inflection point" in a statement. "Our ongoing delivery of initial capacity to AMD, and their decision to already double their footprint with a 25 megawatt expansion, validates our ability to execute at institutional scale with the most demanding tenants," he said.
Riot ended the quarter with $282.5 million in cash and 15,679 Bitcoin in reserve. That's a decent war chest for a company trying to reinvent itself.
Shares were up 0.70% in after-hours trading, changing hands at $17.35. Not a huge move, but after a mixed report, investors seem willing to give the AI pivot a chance.
