Riot Platforms (RIOT)

The sleeper story is that Riot just admitted their Bitcoin mining expansion is economically broken by halting Corsicana Phase 2 for mining while desperately shopping the power to hyperscalers through two investment banks. The Street sees 'AI optionality' but this is really a distressed pivot from a management team that missed every operational target while costs exploded 23% quarter-over-quarter. The binding constraint isn't power access, it's that their $42k cost to mine makes the core business uninvestable at current Bitcoin prices and network difficulty. Jason Les said it himself: 'Building AI HPC data centers is incredibly more expensive than Bitcoin mining' yet they're pursuing it anyway because the alternative is admitting the strategy failed. My view changes if they sign a real hyperscaler deal at $3M+/MW/year, but the frantic board restructuring and feasibility study scramble suggests they're further from a deal than they're letting on.