Riot Describes Bitcoin Mining as a Means to an End

Riot Platforms' Q3 net profit hit $104.5M, revenue $180.2M.

In the third quarter, Riot Platforms, a mining company, reported a net profit of $104.5 million, with a record total revenue of $180.2 million.

Riot Platforms Reports Third Quarter 2025 Financial Results and Strategic Highlights.

— Record quarterly revenue of $180.2 million
— Net income of $104.5 million, or $0.26 diluted EPS
— Adjusted EBITDA of $197.2 million
— Announces initiation of 112 MW of core and shell for data… pic.twitter.com/kMbzwaAvF7

— Riot Platforms, Inc. (@RiotPlatforms) October 30, 2025

During the reporting period, the firm mined 1406 BTC compared to 1104 BTC a year earlier. As of September 30, Riot had accumulated 19,287 BTC (~$2.2 billion) in its crypto reserves and had $170 million in available funds.

Mining operations accounted for about 90% of the quarterly revenue. Riot’s Vice President, Josh Kane, noted during a conference call that the company is pleased with its digital gold mining results. However, the firm is primarily focused on maximizing profits from its access to electricity, he added.

“As our strategy has evolved, so has our approach to bitcoin mining. We no longer see it as an end goal but rather as a means to an end—to maximize the value of our megawatts,” Kane stated.

According to him, this means reallocating the energy portfolio over time towards more profitable business areas.

“We will continue to leverage bitcoin mining opportunities to provide electricity and generate significant cash flow, which we will use to support the ongoing transformation of our business as a whole,” Kane said.

Earlier this year, Riot officially announced the start of diversifying into high-performance computing (HPC). The company halted all plans to expand cryptocurrency mining capacity at its Corsicana (Texas) facility, which has a planned capacity of 1 GW.

As a result, Riot lowered its year-end 2025 hash rate target from 46.7 EH/s to 38.4 EH/s.

According to TheMinerMag, since September 2024, the company has increased its realized mining capacity from 20.1 EH/s to 33.1 EH/s. Meanwhile, 126 MW of the Corsicana facility has already been allocated to create a “core and shell” data center for AI servicing.

“All this is done with the aim of maximizing the return on all available megawatts, striving not to leave unused capacity while we actively develop the data center business. Ultimately, we intend to transform the entire site into a data center campus with a total capacity of 1 GW,” said Riot CEO Jason Les.

Value of Bitcoin Miners Rises Amid AI Shift

Amid the expanding shift of miners into artificial intelligence, one notable deal was the planned acquisition of Core Scientific by AI infrastructure provider CoreWeave for $9 billion. The parties signed an agreement in July this year.

However, a special meeting of Core shareholders did not support the merger, as the company informed the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The failure of the deal was not unexpected, noted analysts from the investment bank Macquarie, according to CoinDesk. Several major Core shareholders, such as Two Seas Capital and Gullane Capital, opposed the acquisition, believing that CoreWeave’s offer significantly undervalued the miner.

Following the deal’s collapse, Core’s shares surged by more than 5%, exceeding $22. By the week’s close, the price adjusted to $21.5. The company’s market capitalization is about $6.7 billion.

Conversely, CoreWeave’s shares reacted with a comparable drop, reaching a local minimum of $131. The market value of the AI hyperscaler exceeds $66 billion.

In light of this, Macquarie upgraded Core’s stock rating and raised the target price to $34. Analysts believe that continuing independent operations will provide the company with greater flexibility in leasing capacity for AI services in the future. Of Core’s total 1.5 GW portfolio, CoreWeave uses 590 MW. This allows the miner to diversify short-term revenues to maximize profits through agreements with other clients, bank experts suggest.

The failure of the Core and CoreWeave deal demonstrates that bitcoin miners are beginning to recognize the value of their energy infrastructure amid the growing shortage of AI capacity, noted The Block.

In October, a group of investors, including BlackRock, Nvidia, Microsoft, and Elon Musk’s xAI, announced the purchase of data center operator Aligned for $40 billion. The deal valued 1 MW of data center capacity at approximately $8 million—about 160% higher than comparable mining enterprises.

As reported, analysts from The Kobeissi Letter described electricity as the world’s most valuable resource due to the AI boom.