D.E. Shaw takes position in Riot Platforms, joins push to make changes: Reuters

A second activist investor, D.E. Shaw, has built a stake in Riot Platforms, according to reporting from Reuters . This is the second activist in as many months to push changes at Riot.

On Dec. 12, 2024, The Wall Street Journal reported that activist Starboard Value wants Riot “to convert some of its bitcoin-mining facilities into capacity for so-called hyperscalers.”

One of the largest publicly traded bitcoin miners, Riot’s stock was down 25% at the time of that report, as miners struggled to maintain profitability following the Bitcoin halving in April.

"Starboard would like to see Riot take a similar path as bitcoin miner Core Scientific, which has been working with CoreWeave—an Nvidia-backed startup—to supply power infrastructure for the cloud-computing company’s operations," people familiar with the matter told WSJ.

Riot Platforms said last week that it is looking into the artificial intelligence and high-performance computing boom. The company said it is also reducing its previously announced total self-mining hash rate capacity growth and associated capital expenditures for 2025.

"Our focus has always been on maximizing the potential of our assets and ensuring that any agreement we enter into with an AI/HPC counterparty would be the result of an informed, thorough process that puts the best interests of all our shareholders first," Riot CEO Jason Les said in a press release.

Riot’s stock is up about 5% so far in 2025, nearly in line with where shares traded at the time of the Starboard stake. The company has a market capitalization of $3.8 billion, according to The Block’s RIOT price data .

“D.E. Shaw, best known for employing quantitative investment tools to power returns, sometimes pursues an activist strategy but rarely runs public boardroom fights,” Reuters reports. Among its alumni is Jeff Bezos, who was a vice president at the fund just before starting Amazon.