Riot Platforms, Inc.

Greetings, and welcome to the Riot Platform's first quarter 2024 financial results conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If you should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Phil, Vice President of Capital Markets and Investor Relations. Thank you, Phil. You may begin.

Thank you, Devin. Good morning, and welcome to Riot Platform's first quarter 2024 earnings call. My name is Phil McPherson, and joining me on today's call are Jason Less, CEO, Colin Yee, CFO, and Jason Chung, Executive Vice President of Corporate Development and Strategy. On the Riot Investor Relations website, you can find our first quarter 2024 earnings press release and earnings presentation, which are intended to supplement today's prepared remarks. and which include a discussion of certain non-GAAP items. Non-GAAP financial measures provided should not be considered as a substitute for or superior to the measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with GAAP and are included as additional clarifying items to aid investors in further understanding the company's first quarter performance. During today's call, we will be making forward-looking statements regarding potential future events. These statements are based on management's current expectations, and assumptions, and are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results could materially differ due to factors discussed in today's earnings press release, in comments and responses made during today's call, and in the risk factors section of our Form 10-K, Form 10-Q included for the quarter ended March 31st, 2024, which will be filed today after market close and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. With that, I would like to turn the call over to Jason Lest, CEO of Riot Platforms.

Thank you, Phil, and good morning, everyone. Riot filed our first quarter 2024 press release and earnings presentation this morning, both of which are available on the investor relations section of Riot's website. Riot's primary strategic focus has been on developing a leading vertically integrated Bitcoin mining company built on the three key pillars of developing and owning operations of significant scale, being a low cost producer of Bitcoin, and building a balance sheet of strength. By focusing on a vertically integrated strategy, we are best able to build these pillars. Over the past three years, we have been focused on developing this strategy at scale. This began with the acquisition of our Rockdale facility, its development and operations teams, and low cost fixed power contracts. The strategy continued with the acquisition of ESS Metron. and the introduction of our engineering segment, which helps control the key supply bottleneck for electrical equipment in building out Bitcoin mining infrastructure. And finally, the development of our Corsicana facility has broadened our portfolio of access to power capacity and purpose-built Bitcoin mining facilities. The benefits of this strategy are on display today, and as a result, we see other miners in the space moving towards a similar strategy. Since RIOT has developed this strategy most fully and at scale, we are able to build out facilities like Corsicana further, while others who have not already ordered key pieces of electrical equipment face 18 plus months of supply chain constraints. The energization of Corsicana this month means that RIOT has a clear, fully funded growth plan. This landmark achievement is the result of our team's dedication to our long-term strategy. The first phase of this facility puts us well on track to increase our self-mining hash rate to 31x the hash by the end of 2024. The Corsicana facility utilizes immersion cooling for all of its buildings, a technology in which Riot is the industry leader in deploying upscale. We are very excited about the incredible pipeline for growth the Corsicana facility provides for the next several years, and we look forward to further executing on this plan. Through owning and operating our own site and an unmatched portfolio of 345 megawatts of fixed price long-term power agreements, we have the unique ability to execute on our power strategy, which demonstrates the benefits of Bitcoin mining for grid stability and significantly drives down our cost of power. Power is the primary variable input for Bitcoin mining, and that is why we have built our reputation as a leader in this key part of our business. Making large acquisitions, developing pipelines for growth, and maintaining fixed price power contracts at scale requires a strong financial and liquidity position. Our unmatched balance sheet strength makes all of this possible and is responsible for their success. With this strong position, we are funding our near- and intermediate-term growth plans to expand Corsicana and increase our hash rate through purchasing leading-edge miners on a long-term, fixed-price basis from MicroBT. In conclusion, we remain focused on the growth and enhancement of our self-mining business. In 2023, we terminated two remaining legacy hosting contracts at the Rockdale facility because of both customers' failure to perform under those agreements. As a result of the reduction in hosting revenue, we have eliminated the data center hosting business as a separate reporting segment starting in the first quarter of 2024 and are consolidating results into the Bitcoin mining business segment. Riot's focus is maximizing Bitcoin mining results, and our strategy is enabling us to execute on this at an unprecedented scale. With that, I would like to now turn the call over to Colin Yee, CFO of Riot Platforms.