Riot Platforms Corsicana
"A Bitcoin mine that got paid tens of millions to switch off the Texas grid is quietly becoming an AI data center."
Corsicana, Navarro County, TX
Riot Platforms Corsicana is an operating data center in Navarro County, TX, operated by Riot Platforms, Inc.. DataCentersExposed has documented 1,000 MW of reported power capacity at this site.
Reporting by Eric Keller · Updated Jun 17, 2026
Overview
Riot Platforms' Corsicana site in Navarro County, Texas is one of the largest Bitcoin mines in the world, with its first 400-megawatt phase energized in April 2024 and ERCOT approval for up to a gigawatt. In January 2025 Riot paused the planned 600-megawatt Bitcoin expansion and began evaluating AI and high-performance computing for the remaining capacity, has assembled around 858 acres, and filed a roughly $400 million data-center permit.
The controversy is the demand-response money. Riot earned about $71.2 million in 2023 and $33.7 million in 2024 in power credits across its sites for curtailing during grid stress, the practice of miners getting paid to switch off a grid they also strain. Navarro County rejected the tax abatement in March 2024, then approved a scaled-back version on a 3-2 vote that October, with opposition centered on water (about 1.5 million gallons a day at peak) and power.
It is a clean example of the crypto-to-AI pivot now sweeping the industry, as Bitcoin miners with cheap power and grid interconnections reposition as AI landlords. One caution for readers: the widely shared story about a deafening, health-wrecking mine is in Granbury, a different Texas site, not Corsicana.
Operator chain
- Ultimate parentRiot Platforms, Inc.
- ParentPrime Data Centers
- Files asRiot Platforms, Inc.
- This facilityRiot Platforms Corsicana
Grid & water — why here
source: HIFLD · EPAThe closest existing grid infrastructure and the municipal water system this location sits in — the same constraints the buildout model screens on (it won't site a campus more than ~2 km from a substation or ~5 km from municipal water). Distances are straight-line to public HIFLD/EPA features, not a metered connection.
In the news
source: GDELTTax breaks & subsidies
source: Good Jobs First / GASB 77These tax breaks are recorded to Riot Platforms, Inc. (the operator/parent) and may cover this or other sites — no state names the recipient at the facility level.
- Texas Qualifying Large Data Center Project ExemptionTax break$0State of Texas · granted 2025 · term — yr · source
- Texas Qualifying Large Data Center Project ExemptionTax break$0State of Texas · granted 2025 · term — yr · source
- Texas Qualifying Large Data Center Project ExemptionTax break$0State of Texas · granted 2025 · term — yr · source
Texas reported $16.1M in Property used in certain large data center projects; temporary exemption (Texas Tax Code § 151.3595) for FY2025 (Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts). Program-wide, not attributable to this site.
Water use
No measured record exists, so this is a low-confidence model from 1,000 MW (disclosed IT power): 2 L/kWh cooling (hot climate) + 0.4 gal/kWh embedded in ERCOT grid mix. How we estimate. Have a utility document? Send it and we'll replace this with the real figure.
EPA permits & violations
source: EPA ECHONo reported violations as of last sync.
Environmental permits
source: Permit register- CORSICANATXR1562KR
Air quality near this site
source: AirNowAir Quality Index from the nearest AirNow reporting area (San Antonio), as of 2026-06-10. Regional context — not this facility's own emissions.
Who lives nearby
source: Census ACS 2023Demographics of the census tract this facility sits in (American Community Survey 5-year estimates). Environmental-justice context for who bears the local impacts.
Nearest school
source: HIFLD / NCESThe nearest public school, Dawson Daep in Corsicana, is 0.3 mi from this site. 4 public schools sit within a mile of the site.
Schools are sensitive receptors for the noise, backup-generator exhaust, and traffic a large data center brings. Straight-line distance to the nearest public school (HIFLD/NCES, US public schools only).
Hearings timeline
No public-hearing records linked to this site yet. We surface planning-commission and board-of-supervisors dates when a record names a facility. If you know of a hearing on this site, tell us.