Bitcoin Miner Riot Platforms Targeted by Second Activist Investor: Reuters

Bitcoin miner Riot Platforms (RIOT) finds itself a people of a 2nd activistic investor, with Reuters reporting concern absorption elephantine D.E. Shaw arsenic having taken an unspecified stake.

The determination by D.E. Shaw, which manages $70 cardinal successful assets, comes conscionable weeks aft different activistic investor, Starboard Value (roughly $9 cardinal successful AUM), took a presumption successful Riot. At the clip of Starboard's investment, the WSJ reported the capitalist arsenic pushing Riot to person immoderate of its bitcoin mining sites into information centers that could big machines to alteration high-performance computing (HPC) for large tech companies.

Reuters didn't specify if D.E. Shaw volition enactment akin unit connected the miner. However, the study noted, the concern steadfast has been known to sometimes prosecute an activistic strategy with a penchant towards negotiating with companies retired of the limelight.

Earlier this month, Riot said it started a formal evaluation of imaginable artificial intelligence/HPC uses for its remaining 600 megawatts (MW) of powerfulness capableness astatine 1 of its facilities. The bitcoin mining manufacture has faced an aggravated nett compression pursuing the bitcoin halving earlier this twelvemonth (which slashed mining profitability), starring immoderate miners to look for ways to diversify their gross sources. While determination was immoderate excitement successful capitalist sentiment and stock prices successful caller months aft Riot adjacent Core Scientific (CORZ) signed a multi-billion dollar woody with a hyperscaler — a steadfast operating large-scale information centers for unreality computing and AI — that vanished this week with the emergence of China's DeepSeek, which reportedly volition necessitate lone a tiny fraction of the computing powerfulness U.S.-based AI plays were thought to need.

CORZ, to sanction conscionable one, is little by astir 30% since Monday. For its portion RIOT is little by 18% implicit the aforesaid play and is astir level connected a year-over-year basis. Shares are up 1% today.