AI Pivot Spurs Double Upgrade for Riot Platforms; JPMorgan and Citi Raise Targets

Riot Platforms (RIOT) earned back-to-back upgrades on Friday, with JPMorgan and Citigroup raising their outlooks amid the bitcoin miner’s expansion into high-performance computing and AI services.

JPMorgan upgraded Riot to overweight from neutral, lifting its price target to $19 from $15 and citing it as the most attractive among mining peers. Citigroup upgraded to buy from neutral, raising its price target to $24 from $13.75. Both firms noted Riot’s AI and cloud initiatives as potential growth drivers amid tightening mining profitability. Riot modestly outperformed the sector, declining just 1.2% to $16.55.

In related moves, JPMorgan downgraded IREN to underweight from neutral, with shares down 9.7% Friday but still up about 300% year-to-date. CleanSpark (CLSK) was lowered to neutral, falling 9.3% on the day while up 34% year-to-date.

JPMorgan maintained its buy rating on Cipher Mining (CIFR), doubling its price target to $12 from $6, with shares 3.5% lower at $11.20. MARA Holdings (MARA) remained overweight, though its price target was trimmed to $20 from $22, with shares down 1% at $15.90.

Analysts at JPMorgan assigned a 50% probability that Riot, Cipher, and IREN secure near-term high-performance computing (HPC) colocation deals, referencing Core Scientific’s (CORZ) 800 MW CoreWeave (CRWV) contract as a benchmark. HPC contracts are valued between $3.7 million and $8.6 million per gross megawatt (MW).