"D.E. Shaw Joins Riot Platforms, Pushing Bitcoin Miner's HPC Pivot"

Bitcoin miner Riot Platforms (RIOT) has drawn the attention of a second activist investor, with Reuters reporting that investment management giant D.E. Shaw has taken an unspecified stake in the company. This move comes just weeks after another activist investor, Starboard Value, took a position in Riot, pushing the company to explore the conversion of some of its bitcoin mining sites into data centers for high-performance computing (HPC) for big tech companies.

D.E. Shaw, which manages $70 billion in assets, has been known to pursue an activist strategy, often preferring to negotiate with companies out of the limelight. The investment firm's involvement in Riot suggests that it may be interested in influencing the company's strategic direction, although Reuters did not specify if D.E. Shaw will put similar pressure on the miner as Starboard.

Earlier this month, Riot announced that it had begun a formal evaluation of potential artificial intelligence/HPC uses for its remaining 600 megawatts (MW) of power capacity at one of its facilities. The bitcoin mining industry has faced an intense profit squeeze following the bitcoin halving earlier this year, which slashed mining profitability. This has led some miners to look for ways to diversify their revenue sources.

While there was some excitement in investor sentiment and share prices in recent months after Riot peer Core Scientific (CORZ) signed a multi-billion dollar deal with a hyperscaler, that enthusiasm has since waned with the emergence of China's DeepSeek. CORZ shares are down about 30% since Monday, while RIOT is down 18% over the same period and is roughly flat on a year-over-year basis. Shares are up 1% today.