Bitcoin miner Riot appoints former Hut 8 CEO to its board amid AI exploration

Riot Platforms has appointed former Hut 8 CEO Jaime Leverton to its board of directors to help oversee the evaluation of its Bitcoin mining infrastructure for potential artificial intelligence and high-performance computing use cases.

Leverton has previously facilitated extensive merger and acquisition and capital markets activities at Hut 8, including the company’s Nasdaq listing and its expansion into the HPC space by acquiring TeraGo’s data center business. She departed Hut 8 in February 2024 following the appointment of President and board member Asher Genoot as its new CEO after its merger with US Bitcoin Corp (USBTC). Leverton has also held leadership roles at eStruxture Data Centers, Cogeco Peer 1, National Bank of Canada, BlackBerry, Bell Canada and IBM Canada.

Riot also announced two further board appointments on Thursday, Doug Mouton and Michael Turner. The board will now have six members, with current directors Hannah Cho and Hubert Marleau retiring.

Riot’s Board Governance and Nominating Committee selected the three new directors for their experience in directly overseeing the conversion of Bitcoin mining infrastructure for potential AI and HPC use cases, managing data center operations similar to those owned and operated by Riot, the firm said.

“Jaime, Doug and Michael bring complementary expertise to the Board that will be immediately applicable as we continue to assess how best to maximize the value of our unique assets,” Riot Executive Chairman Benjamin Yi said.

Riot’s AI pivot

Riot had chosen to focus solely on its Bitcoin mining operations until recently. However, amid the strong outperformance of AI-diversifying mining stocks in 2024, like Hut 8, in comparison to their pure-play rivals, CEO Jason Les said in October it would be open to AI opportunities if the right deal came along. Les specifically identified Core Scientific’s hosting deal with AI Hyperscaler CoreWeave as one such example — expected to generate revenue of more than $3.5 billion over 12 years.

Riot has engaged Evercore, a global independent investment bank, and Northland Capital Markets as financial advisors to assist with evaluating the potential AI/HPC uses for its power assets at the Corsicana Facility in Navarro County, Texas, to maximize their value. The company also enlisted Altman Solon, a leading data center industry consultant, to support the process.

Since announcing its formal evaluation in January, Riot said it has seen a surge in inbound interest from multiple potential counterparties. However, it warned there is no guarantee that Riot's assets are suitable for AI/HPC conversion, that conversion can be achieved on favorable terms or that a beneficial partnership can be negotiated for shareholders.

“We are excited to continue to advance our AI/HPC evaluation process as we seek to maximize value for our entire portfolio of assets,” Les said on Thursday. “We believe there is an opportunity to deliver substantial value to our shareholders and are confident we have the right team in place that will be able to help us conduct this process as efficiently and effectively as possible.”

Last month, analysts at JPMorgan and Bernstein said Riot’s pivot from Bitcoin mining to AI data centers is “encouraging” and could mark the beginning of a "re-rating journey" for the company.

Riot stock closed up 0.2% on Wednesday and is currently down 0.4% in pre-market trading at $11.12 on Thursday, according to TradingView .