Riot Platforms Inc. (RIOT): Leopold Aschenbrenner Reaffirms Bullish Stance

We just covered From Fired Researcher to $13.7 Billion King: How Leopold Aschenbrenner Broke the Hedge Fund World and Riot Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:RIOT) ranks 16th on this list.

Riot Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:RIOT) has been a constant feature in the 13F portfolio of Situational Awareness LP since the third quarter of 2025. Back then, this position comprised a little over 3.5 million shares. In the fourth quarter of 2025, the fund increased this stake by 71% to over 6 million shares. Filings for the first quarter of 2026 show that the fund owns 11.5 million shares in the firm, up 86% compared to filings for the previous quarter. Riot operates as a Bitcoin mining company in the United States. It offers comprehensive and critical infrastructure for bitcoin mining and data center services at a range of facilities. Leopold Aschenbrenner is very bullish on Bitcoin mining firms that are leasing out their power for AI compute.

Bears have historically modeled Riot Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:RIOT) as a structurally fragile, single-commodity miner. The Q1 2026 financials fundamentally disrupted that thesis by proving the rapid emergence of a highly profitable, recurring revenue stream. The firm posted total consolidated revenue of $167.2 million for Q1 2026, outperforming Wall Street consensus analyst expectations of $122.26 million by 36.7%. While Bitcoin mining accounted for $111.9 million, the newly broken-out Data Center business segment generated $33.2 million in the opening act. Driven by tenant fit-out services and initial hosting operations, this digital infrastructure division operated at a 91% operating lease gross margin.

While we acknowledge the risk and potential of RIOT as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than RIOT and that has 10,000% upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.

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