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Bitcoin Miner Riot Adds New Board Member to Push AI Pivot

Riot also announced it has hired investment banks Evercore and Northland Capital Markets to lead discussions with potential AI and HPC partners.

By Sam Reynolds|Edited by Parikshit Mishra

Updated Feb 13, 2025, 7:10 a.m. Published Feb 13, 2025, 7:09 a.m.

What to know:

Bitcoin miner RIOT announced new board appointments as the company grows its AI data center operations.
Many BTC miners are looking to expand revenue from hosting AI servers as bitcoin becomes less lucrative to mine.

Bitcoin (BTC) miner Riot Platforms appointed three new directors to its board as it explores potential opportunities in artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC).

The additions include Michael Turner, former president of Oxford Properties and global head of real estate at OMERS, one of Canada's largest pension funds, alongside Jaime Leverton, ex-CEO of Hut 8 Mining (HUT), and Doug Mouton, a data center development veteran from Microsoft and Meta, the company said in a release on Thursday.

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The appointments come as Riot considers repurposing its mining infrastructure, particularly its Corsicana Facility in Texas, for AI workloads, and has tapped investment banks Evercore and Northland Capital Markets to assist with this transition.

Riot’s move follows a broader industry trend as miners seek new revenue streams amid rising energy costs and lower mining rewards after the recent Bitcoin halving.

CoinDesk reported in October that Core Scientific (CORZ), one of RIOT's rivals, has been building AI-focused infrastructure since 2019.

Bitcoin Miner Riot platforms Bitcoin AI

Sam Reynolds

Sam Reynolds is a senior reporter based in Asia. Sam was part of the CoinDesk team that won the 2023 Gerald Loeb award in the breaking news category for coverage of FTX's collapse. Prior to CoinDesk, he was a reporter with Blockworks and a semiconductor analyst with IDC.