Stock Market Today, Jan. 16: Riot Platforms Surges After Securing AMD Data Center Lease

Riot Platforms (NASDAQ:RIOT), a Bitcoin mining and data center operator, closed Friday at $19.23, up 16.05%. The stock moved higher after news of a long-term data center lease with Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and a land purchase in Rockdale. Trading volume reached 53.4 million shares, about 172% above its three-month average of 19.7 million shares. Riot Platforms repositioned itself as a Bitcoin miner in 2016 and has grown by 612% since then.

How the markets moved today

The S&P 500 slipped 0.07% to 6,939, while the Nasdaq Composite edged down 0.06% to 23,515. Peers Mara Holdings and Hut 8 rose by 6.57% and 4.14%, respectively, as the market weighed recent deals made in the Bitcoin mining and data center operators niche.

What this means for investors

Riot Platforms purchased 200 acres of land it already operated on in Rochdale, Texas, for $96 million, using 1,080 of its 18,005 Bitcoin hoard to fund the deal. Now, as the owner of the land, Riot immediately signed a 10-year data center lease and data services agreement with AMD to provide up to 200 megawatts of critical information technology load capacity, under a $311 million contract.

If AMD agrees to all three of the five-year options, the contract could grow to around $1 billion. As Riot -- and many other miners -- diversify into data center hosting, the market has responded positively.

Josh Kohn-Lindquist has positions in Advanced Micro Devices. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.