Bitcoin Miner Riot Platforms Targeted by Second Activist Investor: Reuters

Bitcoin Miner Riot Platforms Targeted by Second Activist Investor: Reuters

D.E. Shaw Takes Stake in Riot Platforms, Following Starboard's Investment Push for AI Integration

Bitcoin miner Riot Platforms (RIOT) has drawn the attention of a second activist investor, with investment management giant D.E. Shaw taking an unspecified stake in the company, according to Reuters. D.E. Shaw, which manages approximately $70 billion in assets, joins Starboard Value as a significant shareholder in Riot, marking a wave of investor interest aimed at pushing the company toward diversification.

D.E. Shaw’s investment comes just weeks after Starboard, with around $9 billion in assets under management (AUM), acquired a stake in Riot. Starboard's move last year was accompanied by efforts to push the miner to transform some of its bitcoin mining sites into data centers, which could host high-performance computing (HPC) machines for major tech companies. These changes were seen as a way to capitalize on the booming demand for AI and cloud computing services.

While Reuters did not specify whether D.E. Shaw intends to advocate for similar strategic changes at Riot, the firm has a history of adopting an activist approach, often working behind the scenes to influence company operations without drawing excessive public attention.

Earlier this month, Riot announced it had initiated a formal evaluation of potential AI/HPC applications for its remaining 600 megawatts (MW) of power capacity at one of its facilities. This exploration into AI computing comes at a time when the bitcoin mining industry is under increasing pressure due to the bitcoin halving earlier in the year, which significantly reduced mining profitability.

In recent months, there had been optimism in the market after Riot's peer, Core Scientific (CORZ), signed a multi-billion-dollar deal with a hyperscaler—companies that operate large-scale data centers focused on cloud computing and AI. However, investor sentiment took a hit this week following the emergence of China's DeepSeek, which is expected to require far less computing power than originally anticipated by U.S.-based AI companies.

As of this week, Riot's shares have fallen by 18% over the past few days, with a modest 1% increase on the day. Meanwhile, Core Scientific’s stock has plunged by around 30% since Monday. Riot’s year-over-year stock performance remains largely flat despite the recent volatility.

This growing involvement of activist investors suggests that Riot may be on the brink of a shift, as it considers how to leverage its resources beyond bitcoin mining to embrace the rapidly expanding AI and HPC sectors.