Riot Taps Yates for 191 MW Rockdale AI Data Center Buildout

Riot Platforms has moved a 191-megawatt AI data-center program at its Rockdale, Texas campus into an awarded delivery phase. The owner says it has signed a 20-year build-to-suit lease with an unnamed frontier AI lab, selected delivery partners, advanced procurement, and engaged Yates Construction as general contractor. The first 96 megawatts of critical IT capacity are targeted for December 2027, followed by the remaining 95 megawatts in June 2028.

The scale is large even by the current AI infrastructure cycle. Riot's August 10 SEC-filed release describes 191 megawatts of contracted critical IT load and approximately $9.1 billion of expected revenue over the base lease term. Its investor presentation provides an illustrative new-construction cost range of $11 million to $12 million per IT megawatt. Applied to the contracted load, that points to roughly $2.1 billion to $2.3 billion of construction capital before tenant fit-out.

Those figures describe different parts of the transaction. The $9.1 billion is expected lease revenue through June 2048. The $2.1 billion to $2.3 billion is Riot's illustrative construction estimate. A separate $573 million Morgan Stanley facility supports initial development and long-lead equipment while the broader credit structure is finalized. Contractors should follow the construction program, procurement milestones, and package awards rather than reading the lease value as an available construction backlog.

Rockdale project snapshot

Item	Public record	Why it matters
Contracted load	191 MW critical IT	Two delivery phases at Tier 3 scale
Schedule	96 MW in Dec. 2027; 95 MW in June 2028	Procurement, installation, and commissioning must sequence across phases
Construction estimate	About $2.1B-$2.3B	Illustrative new-build capex, excluding tenant fit-out
Commercial term	20 years through June 2048	Long-duration build-to-suit lease
General contractor	Yates Construction	Prime route for trade-partner and package signals
Current stage	Awarded / design and procurement	Physical start for this 191 MW program remains unconfirmed

A new program inside an existing 700 MW campus

Riot's Rockdale facility page describes a roughly 200-acre campus with seven buildings, dedicated water, fiber connectivity, and 700 megawatts of developed power capacity. The 191-megawatt lease uses that existing site and its approved interconnection, giving the project a different starting point from a greenfield campus waiting on its first utility path.

The new construction is still a distinct program. Riot acquired the land in January 2026 for approximately $96 million and separately signed a 50-megawatt agreement with AMD. AMD's initial 25 megawatts entered service in May, and a second 25-megawatt expansion is under construction. Those AMD milestones do not establish field progress on the 191-megawatt frontier-lab buildout. Riot's current record supports an awarded classification because the tenant lease is executed, the internal architecture is complete, delivery partners are selected, and long-lead procurement has begun. A notice to proceed or clear physical-start announcement would support the next stage change.

The schedule creates the immediate construction signal. Riot says the tenant's basis of design has been incorporated and the first phase is "de-risked" for a December 2027 delivery. That leaves a compressed runway for detailed design, procurement, shell and MEP work, controls integration, testing, and tenant acceptance. The second 95-megawatt phase follows six months later. A contractor entering the program must be ready for overlapping turnover sequences rather than one campus-wide finish line.

Who is publicly connected to the buildout

Riot management named Yates Construction as general contractor during its second-quarter call. Yates' data-center practice covers mission-critical construction, while its public careers and trade-partner routes offer places to watch for Rockdale-specific hiring, prequalification, and procurement activity. A final guaranteed maximum price, Yates contract value, and package list have not been disclosed.

Organization	Verified role	Public evidence
Riot Platforms	Owner, developer, and build-to-suit landlord	SEC exhibit
Yates Construction	General contractor named by Riot management	Q2 call transcript
ESS Metron	Riot-owned switchgear and power-distribution supplier	Investor deck
E4A Solutions	Riot-owned substation engineering and commissioning partner	Investor deck
Morgan Stanley	Interim development financing	Form 8-K
Oncor	Serving utility tied to the existing campus interconnection	Riot milestone deck
Foley & Lardner	Riot transaction counsel for the tenant lease	Counsel confirmation

Riot has also integrated two acquired engineering businesses into its delivery platform. ESS Metron manufactures low- and medium-voltage switchgear and related power-distribution equipment. E4A Solutions brings substation design, electrical engineering, commissioning, and maintenance capability. Their presence gives Riot more control over critical power work, yet public materials do not assign every building electrical, controls, low-voltage, or commissioning package to those affiliates. Package boundaries still require source confirmation.

Where low voltage enters a 191 MW Tier 3 program

The campus already has fiber connectivity, multiple buildings, high-capacity power, and an operating security perimeter. The new tenant buildout must connect into that environment while preserving physical separation, resiliency, documentation, and acceptance standards. That makes outside plant, diverse entrances, structured cabling, security, life safety, controls networks, and integrated testing central coordination lanes.

System	Likely touchpoint	Current evidence
OSP and fiber	Diverse routes, building entrances, carrier handoffs	Campus fiber exists; new routes and carriers are undisclosed
Structured cabling	Telecom rooms, pathways, labeling, test records	Required by the use; integrator is undisclosed
Access control and CCTV	Perimeter, gates, mantraps, secure zones	Tenant-specific security team is undisclosed
Fire alarm	Detection, suppression interfaces, monitoring	Fire/life-safety contractor is undisclosed
BMS, EPMS, and DCIM	Power, cooling, alarms, trends, operations	Riot names power partners; controls boundaries remain open
DAS and radio	In-building and public-safety coverage	Design and carrier requirements are undisclosed
Commissioning	Sequence tests, failover, integrated systems testing	E4A capability is named; tenant acceptance scope is undisclosed

Tier 3 delivery increases the importance of coordination. A fiber team may need to work around energized switchgear and live campus operations. Security devices must integrate with visitor workflows and tenant access policies. Fire alarm points must coordinate with suppression and mechanical shutdown sequences. BAS/BMS, EPMS, and DCIM data must reach the correct operational layers without blurring tenant and landlord control. Commissioning then has to prove the designed sequence under normal, maintenance, and failure conditions.

The strongest early trade signal is long-lead procurement. Riot's credit agreement filing says the $573 million facility can fund development costs and long-lead equipment. Switchgear and power-distribution decisions can trigger downstream pathway, control wiring, protection, monitoring, network, and test requirements. They can also expose the integrators and commissioning teams attached to the critical path.

Jobs, trade partners, and skills to prepare

Riot's careers page lists Rockdale as an active work location, and Yates maintains professional, craft, and trade-partner channels. Neither page currently provides a stable public roster of jobs or subcontract packages assigned specifically to the 191-megawatt tenant program. Applicants and subcontractors should verify the location, employer, project assignment, and package before treating a listing as direct evidence of an opening on this buildout.

Useful preparation tracks include:

• Mission-critical fiber installation, cleaning, inspection, OTDR and loss testing.
• Copper and fiber labeling, pathway discipline, QA/QC, and turnover documentation.
• Data-center grounding and bonding around racks, trays, telecom spaces, and equipment.
• Access control, VMS, fire alarm, BAS/BMS, EPMS, DCIM, and OT network integration.
• Substation communications, relay/SCADA fiber, protection interfaces, and controls testing.
• OSHA training, lift access, energized-site awareness, badging, and contractor prequalification.
• Integrated systems testing, deficiency tracking, trend review, and closeout documentation.

Training routes include BICSI Installer 2, Optical Fiber, FOA workforce resources, and OSHA outreach training. Credentials alone do not create a package award, but they help teams meet the safety, testing, documentation, and quality expectations that appear once mission-critical procurement opens.

Trade partners can also prepare the operational evidence that mission-critical primes typically request: recent safety metrics, insurance and bonding capacity, quality plans, manufacturer authorizations, certified technician rosters, test-equipment calibration records, sample closeout packages, and references from energized facilities. The two-phase schedule makes manpower planning equally important. Firms should be able to explain how they will staff parallel pathway, device, testing, punch-list, and turnover work without weakening supervision or documentation. Yates' public trade-partner route is the appropriate place to establish a verified relationship and learn its project-specific process when Rockdale packages surface. Direct outreach should reference the 191-megawatt program carefully, acknowledge that specialty awards remain undisclosed, and offer relevant mission-critical capability rather than claiming a connection to the tenant.

What would move the project forward

The next high-value disclosures are a formal notice to proceed, physical construction start, final GMP, phase site plan, building allocation, and named design team. On the power side, watch for project-specific Oncor scope, voltage, protection, substation, and energization milestones beyond the campus's existing 700-megawatt capacity. On the technology side, watch for fiber carriers, OSP contractor, structured-cabling and network integrator, security and fire-alarm firms, controls vendors, DAS provider, and independent commissioning authority.

The tenant remains unnamed in Riot's SEC filings, company release, and transaction-counsel announcement. Keeping that field open matters because tenant standards can drive network architecture, security requirements, approved vendors, testing scripts, and acceptance criteria. A first-party announcement from Riot or the tenant should be the threshold for attaching a name to the canonical project record.

Riot has already supplied the core commercial signal: a signed 191-megawatt lease, two fixed delivery targets, an experienced general contractor, internal power partners, and financing for early development. LVN Signal will track the permits, companies, packages, jobs, and commissioning milestones as the Rockdale program moves from awarded work into field execution.

Explore LVN Signal to follow AI data-center construction projects, named contractors, low-voltage systems, and workforce signals across North America.