Riot Platforms' stock experienced an 8% increase on Friday, driven by the announcement that Advanced Micro Devices would be expanding its capacity at the Rockdale, Texas campus. This development highlights Riot's ongoing transition from solely focusing on bitcoin mining to exploring high-performance computing and artificial intelligence applications.

According to the company's Q1 financial report, AMD has opted to double its contracted capacity to 50 megawatts, with the potential to increase this to 150 megawatts. The agreement is anticipated to generate approximately $636 million over a decade.

Furthermore, Riot has secured more favorable terms for its $200 million bitcoin-backed credit facility with Coinbase, reducing the interest rate to a fixed 6.15% from 8.3% and releasing 1,544 pledged collateral bitcoins. This shift signals growing lender confidence in the company's expanding data center business. The combination of the AMD deal and improved credit terms has led investors to pay a premium for the stock. Matthew Sigel, head of digital assets research at VanEck, noted that 'market pricing in lower cost of capital as the expanded AMD deal drives lender confidence.' Riot was among the last pure-play mining companies to diversify into hosting AI computing.

However, with the encouragement of activist investor Starboard, the company has begun to accelerate its transition from bitcoin mining to AI infrastructure provision. The expansion of its data center business to accommodate AI computing appears to be yielding positive results for the Castle Rock, Colorado-based firm. The company reported a total revenue of $167.2 million for the quarter ending March 31, representing a increase from $161.4 million in the same period last year.

This growth was supported by $33.2 million in initial data center revenue. Although bitcoin mining revenue decreased to $111.9 million from $142.9 million due to lower bitcoin prices and increased mining competition, the company's shares have risen by approximately 147% over the last 12 months, while bitcoin has fallen by nearly 17%. Riot, which previously retained all its mined bitcoin, is also accelerating its sales of the cryptocurrency.

According to Bitcoin Treasuries data, the company sold 3,688 BTC during Q1 and ended March with 15,679 BTC and $282.5 million in cash.