Bitcoin miner gets letter from activist shareholder demanding faster AI pivot for stock price boost

Bitcoin miners are now getting pressured by their own investors to forego their core business model and plough even further into AI. The shift could boost the stock’s price more than threefold.

On Wednesday, Starboard Value, which holds a 3.5% stake in the Bitcoin mining outfit Riot Platforms, sent a letter to Riot CEO Jason Les arguing the company is sitting on a goldmine of power capacity that could generate billions of dollars — granted it transitions to AI.

“Time is of the essence, and a renewed sense of urgency is required to get more material deals completed,” wrote Peter Feld, managing member of Starboard Value in a press release. Moreover, Riot operates “two of the most attractive sites in the country for AI/HPC data centers,” Feld said.

If Riot can monetise its remaining 1.4 gigawatts of capacity at rates similar to recent deals done by its mining peers, Starboard estimates the data center business alone could be worth $23 to $53 per share.

Shares trade right now at about $15, according to Yahoo Finance.

The pressure reflects a broad existential crisis happening in the Bitcoin mining space.

Every major US-listed miner has pivoted toward AI and high-performance computing as mining became deeply unprofitable following last year’s halving, according to Bernstein analysts.

Additionally, the Bitcoin network, which also adds into miners’ bottom line thanks to transaction fees, has become somewhat of a ghost town, with some blocks barely scratching the 100 transaction count. They can hold upwards of 3,000 transactions.

All of this has left Bitcoin miners with little choice but to repurpose their facilities into AI and HPC. It’s a transformation so profound that Wall Street analysts are now valuing these companies on their AI output rather than their Bitcoin production.

AI selloff

The letter’s timing is pretty delicate.

Scepticism about massive spending on AI infrastructure has grown among investors, forcing some miners to sell Bitcoin just to fund their data centre pivots. Those bets, however, are looking increasingly fragile, said Matthew Sigel, head of digital assets research at VanEck.

Starboard did acknowledge the challenge but it countered that Riot’s sites are particularly attractive, and should be focusing on “high-quality tenants” like hyperscalers, rather than “lower-quality, non-investment-grade tenants with whom some peers have done deals.”

Notably, the letter also suggested that if Riot can’t execute quickly enough, it could become an “exciting candidate for consolidation.”

Riot Platforms and Starboard Value did not immediately respond to a request for comment from DL News.

Pedro Solimano is a markets correspondent based in Buenos Aires. Got a tip? Email him at [email protected].