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Riot Platforms, Inc. (RIOT)

Q1 2024 Earnings Call· Wed, May 1, 2024

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Greetings, and welcome to the Riot Platforms First Quarter 2021 Financial Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Philip McPherson, Vice President of Capital Markets and Investor Relations. Thank you, Phil. You may begin.

Phil McPherson

Analyst

Thank you, Devine. Good morning, and welcome to Riot Platforms First Quarter 2024 Earnings Call. My name is Phil McPherson, and joining me on today's call are Jason Les, 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 and 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 31, 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 Les, CEO of Riot Platforms.

Jason Les

Analyst

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 3 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 3 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 and 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, based 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 31 EH/s by the end of 2024. The Corsicana…

Colin Yee

Analyst

Thank you, Jason. I'm excited to present Riot's financial results for the first quarter of 2024, during which Riot achieved a number of key milestones. For ease of reference, Slide 5 presents a snapshot of key metrics for the first quarter of 2024. But let's go over some highlights on the following pages. We own and operate one of the largest Bitcoin mining operations in North America. And during this past quarter, we continue to deploy miners in Rockdale. We have also pushed ahead with development activities at our new Corsicana facility, which has since been energized and operations have begun. At the end of the first quarter of 2024, our Bitcoin mining business segment had a total deployed hash rate of 12.4 EH/s, which represents an 18% increase year-over-year. And as Jason previously mentioned, we anticipate achieving a total self-mining hash rate capacity of 31 EH/s by the end of 2024. During the first quarter of 2024, we mined 1,364 Bitcoin, which represents a decrease of 36% from the 2,115 Bitcoin we mined during the first quarter of 2023. This was primarily due to the significant increase in the Bitcoin network difficulty, which has more than doubled since January 2023. However, with the significant increase in growth in our hash rate capacity expected by the end of this year, we anticipate producing more Bitcoin per day by the end of the year than we did in the first quarter of 2024, even in spite of the recent halving that occurred a few weeks ago on April 20, 2024. Riot ended the first quarter of 2024 was 8,490 Bitcoin, up significantly relative to the 794 Bitcoin that we held at the end of the first quarter of 2023. In the first quarter of 2024, Riot reported total revenue of $79.3…

Jason Les

Analyst

Thank you, Colin. Pictured on this slide is an aerial shot of our new Corsicana facility. We purchased the land for this facility in 2022 due to its strategic location next to the Navarro switch where 1 gigawatt of power capacity was available. Over the past 2 years, we have worked to develop this site's support reaching 1 gigawatt in total capacity, beginning with the first phase consisting of 400 megawatts of 100% immersion cooled Bitcoin Mining infrastructure, which spans 4 total buildings. The 400-megawatt substation for the first phase of Corsicana's development was energized last month and mining operations have already commenced. Construction remains underway to complete the rest of the first phase by the end of 2024, and in 2025, we intend to continue development of this site to eventually reach 1 gigawatt in total capacity, which would cement the Corsicana's facility status as the largest dedicated Bitcoin Mining facility in North America and potentially globally. Riot's infrastructure pipeline and long-term miner purchase agreement with MicroBT provides us with a clear and direct path to reaching 100 EH/s in self-mining hash rate. Based on our current purchase agreements and development plans, Riot plans to exit 2024 with a total hash rate of 31 EH/s. This includes 2.7 EH/s of growth at our Rockdale facility and 16 EH/s of new growth at our Corsicana facility. Altogether, when fully developed, this would represent a 154% increase in self-funding hash rate over 2024. Fully developing the Corsicana facility through the remaining 600 megawatts of remaining capacity following the completion of the first phase of development and executing a part of our purchase option of MicroBT M56S miners would allow Riot to reach nearly 60 EH/s in total astray capacity. In other words, Corsicana provides a substantial amount of the infrastructure needed…

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Phil, the floor is now yours for the Q&A session.

Phil McPherson

Analyst

Thank you, Devine. We'll take our first call from Kevin Dede at H.C. Wainwright. Kevin?

Kevin Dede

Analyst

It looks like he dropped off. We'll move to the next one. Our next question will come from Greg Lewis of BTIG.

Gregory Lewis

Analyst

Yes. Jason, just watching the strategy unfold in terms of the Bitcoin inventory management. It seems like we've kind of gone through ebbs and flows in terms of funding some operations with Bitcoin. More recently, at least based on the monthly production guidance, it seems like we started holding back and really trying to build that Bitcoin inventory in February and March. I don't think we -- I think maybe we saw a couple of Bitcoin. Post the halving now, as we look at, I guess, May and beyond, how are you thinking about managing the puts and takes in terms of using Bitcoin that you're generating to kind of offset some costs and then at the same time, trying to build that inventory. Any kind of thoughts around that?

Jason Les

Analyst

Sure. Thanks, Greg. So our strategy is to always maintain a strong balance sheet. I think by now, we've all seen how business played out as a key strength for Riot. This includes both in cash and in Bitcoin. We are here because we're a Bitcoin company. We believe in a long-term value of Bitcoin. So we try to hold as much Bitcoin as possible. As you noted, at the beginning of this year in January, we stopped selling Bitcoin. In February and March through our monthly updates, we reported we have not sold any Bitcoin. So currently, we are not selling any Bitcoin. However, we are continuing to always monitor our balance sheet in light of what we need from capital expenses and what we need for operational growth. By maintaining such a strong balance sheet with a cash position that we're reporting today, we have sufficient cash reserves and further access to cash to our ATM program to continue to fund all of our growth plan and our operating expenditures. So it's a decision that we're making on a month-by-month basis of value in the market, evaluating the financing options, evaluating our cost of capital and with the parallel goal of trying to hold as much Bitcoin as possible.

Gregory Lewis

Analyst

Okay. Great. And then just -- my other question was on the engineering business. Realizing that it's not a major driver of the company. Clearly, that's the Bitcoin Mining, but there was kind of a -- I guess there's a 2-part question here in terms of the engineering. With the first being, is there any seasonality that we should be thinking about as we look out over the next, I don't know, 3 to 4 quarters? And then also, I was kind of curious, clearly, when you bought Metron, there was an opportunity to kind of get involved on the infrastructure equipment side, not realizing maybe that Riot's core function as a miner isn't going to be around AI data centers. Is that business Metron? Is that positioned at all to benefit from kind of this ongoing AI infrastructure wave that seems like it's -- we're in the midst of...

Jason Les

Analyst

Yes. So let me tackle this, starting with the last question, Greg. So first, there is incredible demand for this type of electrical agreement right now. While Riot owned ESS Metron, we are one of the smallest customers. Overall, they have a ton of business and a ton of demand from all these data centers -- AI data centers that are rapidly trying to build out and meet demand for this type of service. So they are really overloaded with business opportunity. And what it's limited on has been manufacturing, warehouse capacity and access to the input parts from the global supply chain. So they are benefiting quite a bit from this, and we are looking to increase the capacity of this business so they can meet the demand for these data centers and AI data centers, et cetera. But as you stated, our number one purchase -- reason for purchasing the ESS Metron was strategic. One, we noted in our deck here, it has reduced our CapEx expense for purchasing this electrical equipment from them by about $10 million over the 2 years since we've acquired them. But even more important than that, it has been a critical component of controlling our supply chain while other competitors might have to rely on external parties to procure the electrical equipment and design custom engineering design what they need. We're able to control this in-house. We have visibility in our supply chain. We can move around this. We can make changes. It's been very advantageous to us as we built out both Rockdale and Corsicana. Then your -- first part of your question, though, was the seasonality results. I think you will see a good amount of seasonality this year. Like we noted, the first quarter results were impacted by these global supply chain issues, which held back 2 big orders from moving forward. So not only could those orders not move forward and be recognized as revenue, they occupy space that stops other jobs from being completed. So we expect these to be cleared up during the second half of 2024. We have additional warehouse space we procured. They're on top of resolving the supply chain issues. So that will allow these 2 key contracts to move forward. We can recognize those revenue and then we can keep the backlog flowing with the other demand, which is, as you asked about quite full of data center and AI infrastructure.

Phil McPherson

Analyst

Our next question is from Mike Colonnese from H.C. Wainwright. Mike?

Michael Colonnese

Analyst

First one is really more of a high-level question for me. Just curious how you guys are thinking about the operating environment here with cash prices at all-time lows post halving, the implications for your growth trajectory at Riot and how you expect the M&A landscape to play out as less efficient miners are forced to power down here?

Jason Les

Analyst

Sure. Thanks for the question, Mike. Let me answer the first part, and then the other question, I'll turn it over to Jason Chung, our Head of Corporate Development to talk about M&A here. I think the halving is always a tough time for miners. Immediately after this one, it seems not as bad because a huge influx of transaction fees that we saw, right? There were blocks with 30 Bitcoins in transaction fees and they scaled up from there, but that really offset the decrease in the -- from the block reward halving. But that has subsided and recently, the price has gone down. I think by focusing on being a low-cost producer, Riot is very well positioned for these types of trough periods in Bitcoin Mining economics. Culminating with the summer here, especially with our power strategy, we are able to be very responsive with the price of power, use that to lower our direct cost of mine, and that allows Riot to be a low-cost producer when others have to fall off the network here. And when those higher-cost producers fall off, as you know, difficulty adjust and then that widens the margin again as we're mining more Bitcoin. So we believe this is the type of environment where Riot's strategic pillars are on full display. Obviously, we're long-term bullish on Bitcoin. I just talked about we're holding Bitcoin because we believe in the upside of the system long term. But to be -- to reach that long term, to be a leading Bitcoin Mining company, we have to focus on having this low cost of power and maintain a low cost of production through more difficult points in the market. On the M&A question, I'll go ahead and turn it over to Jason Chung.

Jason Chung

Analyst

Thank you, Jason. Mike, thanks for the question. From our perspective, historically, I think deals have really been tendered in the sector by a number of factors. We can look at volatility in the underlying public miner stock volatility and underlying Bitcoin prices, differences in Bitcoin price expectations across buyers and sellers among other factors. And all of these factors have really led to what we've seen as a pretty -- a fairly wide gap between buyer expectations on valuation and seller expectations on valuation historically. But I think our sense is that, that gap has started to narrow, particularly pre-halving and now that we're post halving, I think that trend will continue. At the same time, we've seen very healthy deal flow pre-halving, and we think that deal so will further increase post-halving. So when you take these 2 factors into consideration together, I think there's a really interesting window of opportunity approaching for deals to be done in the sector. And on our side, we spent a lot of time building out what we believe is the most sophisticated corporate development team in our space, precisely to address this upcoming window.

Michael Colonnese

Analyst

That's great color. Appreciate that. And going back to the engineering business for just a moment. How should we think about engineering revenues once the supply chain issues are resolved later this year, especially given the growing backlog you guys are experiencing? Should we expect the run rate to go back in line with what we saw last year? Or should we experience more of an elevated level, especially given the growing demand for that business?

Jason Les

Analyst

Mike, I would say you can think about it just following the historical performance for now. I think the main thing that we need to work on to scale this business is increasing the capacity of that engineering segment. That will really be the driver of improved financial performance there. The demand is enormous. That has not been an issue for us. It's really expanding our manufacturing warehouse capacity. So we're working on that, but I wouldn't guide towards expecting a higher increase for that at that time. But it's something I think we could touch on at our next earnings call.

Phil McPherson

Analyst

Great. We'll take our next call from Darren Aftahi from ROTH MKM. Darren?

Darren Aftahi

Analyst

Two questions, if I may. The machines you're going to replace in Rockdale. I think in the release, you said those are going to start in the second quarter. Could you just kind of speak to the cadence of how those are going to be added? And then secondly, on the hosting capacity, any kind of sense on resolution there, at least what you can publicly say in terms of how you kind of shift some of that to self mining in the future?

Jason Les

Analyst

Yes, Darren. So for the hash rate replacement and growth at Rockdale. This is with the M60 series, latest generation MicroBT miners that we purchased. We're receiving those this month. We've been preparing to deploy those miners. I would say we can probably expect this to begin at the end of May, continued through June and July. I think the bulk of the deployments will happen during June. But over about the 8 weeks or so starting later this month is how we foresee those deployments going. And that will both replace these problematic machines, which will increase the operating performance in our existing facilities and then we are growing our hash rate as well. So that will take Rockdale from the 12.4 EH/s now to a little over 50 EH/s when all those mines are deployed. We're really excited about this enhancement and growth. We've tested these M60S miners -- or M50 miners and other MicroBT miners considerably before making this decision. We're really impressed with the performance that we saw, the resilience under tougher operating conditions. So we're really excited about the results that we definitely see from those miners as we deploy them over the next couple of months here. With respect to the hosting related litigation, litigation is always unpredictable. I can't really give guidance on that. We are certainly putting a lot of effort and resources towards that litigation. And I think we'll just have to see how it goes from now.

Phil McPherson

Analyst

Our next question comes from Martin Toner at ATB Capital. Martin?

Martin Toner

Analyst

Congrats on the great progress here, particularly, let's say, data center hosting. Can you talk to the drivers of sequentially higher SG&A in the quarter? And maybe what we should be thinking about for a run rate going forward?

Jason Les

Analyst

Sure. So 2 things here. One, again, just touched on, we've had increased level of legal litigation expense as we go through litigation process with these hosting customers. This is not a type of expense that should continue long term, but it's one we're continuing right now. The other point that I would touch on is, as I mentioned in the presentation, we've eliminated the data center hosting segment as a result of eliminating that segment. Some of the costs that were previously in cost of revenues for that segment have now gone into SG&A. The final point I'll leave you with the commentary there is we're building a large business here. We have built this business into what we now are growing into. So we have built a business for 30 EH/s and beyond. And now with what we're accomplishing at Corsicana and the results we're seeing -- we're starting to see there, we're growing into that newer side. So as far as what SG&A can look like going forward, I think you can expect $22 million to $25 million a quarter in cash expenses. I think that's a good estimate that we can give right now. And as the legal and litigation expenses that are not ongoing, continuous fall off, hopefully, we'll be able to improve that number.

Martin Toner

Analyst

Great. Can you talk a little bit about the curtailment revenue in the quarter. Any puts and takes that are noteworthy? And then have there been any changes to the power strategy since Analyst Day a few -- less than a month ago?

Jason Les

Analyst

So most of the power strategy results are really Q3 weighted. We see some every quarter, but most of them really come in the third quarter in the summer months. And of course, at the end of the second quarter, we get some of that in June. So the approximately $5 million you see from the first quarter, that's us really taking advantage of just limited opportunities that have come up during that quarter and the ancillary services revenue that we always participate in. So how it plays out in this summer and mainly Q3 coming up here? It is hard to predict. It's going to be based on external factors like weather and generation performance that we cannot control. However, because we have this 345 megawatts of fixed price power because we have these blocks 24/7 and because of what we've learned on the power strategy that we've developed, we are in a really good position to act on the opportunities when they occur here. So that 345 megawatts, that is Rockdale. So we'll be executing our power strategy at Rockdale, selling power when that spot price of power is exceeding Bitcoin Mining revenue. And then over at Corsicana, we are beginning unhedged and we'll just be responding to the spot prices of power as they occur there, which also gives us the benefit of capturing those very low priced or negative priced hours when they occur as well.

Phil McPherson

Analyst

Great. Our next question comes from Reggie Smith at JPMorgan. Reggie?

Reginald Smith

Analyst

I appreciate the disclosure on Slide 9. I'm still not all the way clear on, I guess, the drivers of the sequential increase and your cost to mine. I am looking at the network difficulty component. And it seems rather large in relation to the 4Q number. Maybe a little color on those 2 components of that and the other costs? And how much of that you think is kind of recurring versus onetime-ish? Any color you could provide there and just kind of bridge -- bridge that increase in cost in mind would be helpful? And then I have one follow-up question.

Jason Les

Analyst

Sure. Thanks, Reggie. So first, as you noted, there's about a 20% increase in network difficulty quarter-over-quarter. So that accounted for about [ $4,300, $4,400 ] cost per coin basis increase in our cost per coin. Other costs increased by about $5 million -- I'm sorry, $5,000 per coin for the quarter. So what is driving that is going to be the elimination of the data center hosting business, and therefore, the consolidation of some of those expenses that were previously in that segment, now in the Bitcoin Mining segment. So some examples of these costs include things like miner repair. Miner repair is slightly elevated at this time. So we hope, especially when we are replacing all our problematic miners, that this cost is going to go down and not continue at least at this quantity. So what I would say is when we look at on Slide 9, our cost per coin, including $6,300 per coin in other costs, I think the best we can do at this time is guide to that approximately continuing. Of course, the halving has an impact on that, but that notwithstanding other costs, which should probably continue at the same rate. But we are going to hope to decrease those by having a lot less miner repair going forward.

Reginald Smith

Analyst

Got it. And you say miner repairs. You're not repairing the equipment from your hosting partners now, are you?

Jason Les

Analyst

Sorry, let me clarify this.

Reginald Smith

Analyst

I guess the comments were blended there. I'm trying to figure out like how much of it was kind of the, I guess, the overhead drag from the hosting business versus some of the other things?

Jason Les

Analyst

Yes. So let me clarify. Miner repair costs have always been in cost of goods for self mining. So that is not a new expense. I would say that the miner repair costs have been elevated in both Q4 and then now in Q1 of 2024 -- sorry, Q4 2023 and Q1 of 2024, and we expect that those are going to go down going forward. So -- and these are third-party repair costs. These are the costs that we are paying to third-party vendors for repairing our miners. The other cost increase quarter-over-quarter by approximately $5,000 per coin. That's largely these other expenses that were previously included in data center hosting cost of revenue that is now in Bitcoin Mining cost of revenue. So some examples of this would be some direct labor expenses, some land lease and property taxes and then network costs and other utility expenses that we incurred.

Reginald Smith

Analyst

Yes, that makes sense. And then I guess, one big picture question for you. I appreciate the disclosure on kind of the 100 EH/s. As you think about growth beyond Corsicana, does that look different in terms of the size of facility, like, is Corsicana like the last final big facility? Do you think there'll be smaller ones going forward? And I ask that just in light of all of the AI interest and power assets and things like that. How are you thinking about like that next 40 EH/s of capacity kind of beyond Corsicana? What could that look like?

Jason Les

Analyst

Yes. I think that what we have at Corsicana is very valuable because it is probably the last 1 gigawatt site, probably the only 1 gigawatt site that exists and probably the last one that will ever be approved. Access to power is going to be a critical constraint for Bitcoin Miners and these other industries scaling up going forward. So I think what you should expect to see from us is capturing smaller-sized opportunities. We're not opposed to doing smaller sites. We've merely been acting on the most frictionless growth path that's been in front of us, which has been these 2 sites of a large capacity. We're open to new sites and new opportunities of all sizes, and we're working on that quite a bit right now. So we look forward to sharing more results as those ideas become more actionable going forward.

Reginald Smith

Analyst

And I guess that could be outside of Texas or maybe even the United States? Or are you still trying to think about staying in Texas?

Jason Les

Analyst

No, we are open to operating, I would say, in the United States and North America. We've operated in Texas because that has been the easiest pathway to growth, and we really like the power market here. We're able to really achieve this industry-leading low cost of power here, which is just so critical in Bitcoin mining. That doesn't mean those opportunities don't exist elsewhere, though. So we look at opportunities all over the country all the time. International opportunities, I think, to be determined. We're seeing some interesting things in South America and elsewhere. But there's other considerations always just besides power costs. So we look at a lot of things, but I think you could expect to see our growth in North America in the foreseeable future.

Phil McPherson

Analyst

Our next call comes from Lucas Pipes of B. Riley Securities. Lucas?

Lucas Pipes

Analyst

So my first question is back on the hosting side. And if we were to be on site today, would there still be machines from your former hosted customers? Or have they been removed?

Jason Les

Analyst

Yes. Lucas, so while we terminated our last 2 remaining hosting agreements towards the end of 2023, one of those customers still remains operating on site. So for the first quarter, that accounted for about $3.2 million in revenue, that was included in our Bitcoin mining revenue. And then their power cost of about $4.5 million was included in our cost of revenues for Bitcoin mining. So you would see that one remaining customer there performing -- I'm sorry, operating, while we continue through the legal process here and try to get to a resolution.

Lucas Pipes

Analyst

And the other one is fully out of your facilities at this point?

Jason Les

Analyst

That's correct. That's correct.

Lucas Pipes

Analyst

And kind of taking a step back, would you consider going back into the hosting business? Or is the lesson learned here, never again?

Jason Les

Analyst

Yes. I think that's the lesson learned here. Maybe I'll say a little more strongly than I would say. I think we have seen the best use of this infrastructure and building new infrastructure is for growing our self-mining operations. We want to get maximum exposure to Bitcoin. We want to leverage our efficient cost of production over the wider scale possible. And I think expanding the hosting business really just takes away that valuable infrastructure pipeline, which I think generates the results and better grows our businesses, more what our shareholders are looking for. So we are not looking to grow the hosting business any further.

Lucas Pipes

Analyst

Very helpful. And then just to round this out. When you look at M&A, you mentioned earlier you are inquisitive if you built out a sophisticated corporate development team. Would you rule out any targets that have posting agreements to date? And more generally, what would the ideal target look like?

Jason Les

Analyst

Sure. Let me turn that back to Jason Chung, our Head of Corporate Development.

Jason Chung

Analyst

Thank you, Jason, and thanks for the question, Lucas. Look, we -- in the M&A world, we see a wide variety of opportunities. And it's rare to see a target that 100% encapsulates everything you're looking for. So sometimes there are situations where there's an opportunity to make a deal, but it might come with some amount of hosting, for example, or other factors which may not completely tie to our overall strategy. And that's something that we have to take into account when we evaluate some of these opportunities in the market. So I'd say as long as an opportunity is able to check most of the financial and strategic and operational boxes, the criteria that we have, then we'll consider it. That being said, at the same time, we are incredibly blessed at Riot to have an organic growth opportunity unlike others in the space. And so ultimately, we have to evaluate all these opportunities relative to our ability to control our own destiny at Corsicana and develop our pipeline with full control over what that looks like.

Lucas Pipes

Analyst

And in terms of size, what do you think is the -- is there a sweet spot either in terms of value dollars or kind of megawatts of capacity?

Jason Chung

Analyst

I wouldn't say there's a specific sweet spot in size. We do look at opportunities across the spectrum. Obviously, as a large-scale miner, we like looking at large-scale opportunities that can move the needle. But I think there are some interesting businesses that aren't necessarily large scale that may be a little less appreciated by the market or kind of fly under the radar. And so there are some interesting deals that can be done there as well.

Phil McPherson

Analyst

Okay. We've got time for one more question. Our last question is going to come from Owen Rickert at Northland Securities.

Owen Rickert

Analyst

I'm on for Mike Grondahl today. So just quickly, I guess, what's your confidence level on getting to the 31 EH/s by the end of the year? And what are some of the challenges you might face or you're currently facing to get there?

Jason Les

Analyst

Thanks for the question. I think we feel pretty confident about our ability to execute on that growth target. We're taking things step by step here. I would say a lesson that we learned from Rockdale was rushing too fast to get every miner online as quickly as possible, kind of oftentimes miss some steps that you have to come back and address later. So we're very incrementally approaching the development year. The big milestone was energizing that substation. That was huge. We're very proud of that. And now it's a matter of just incrementally putting up these buildings, deploying the immersion equipment and putting the miners in and going from there. So we're making these deployments step by step, and you can expect us to see this continue over the rest of the year. The challenges are really just kind of the small things that will come up in any large development. As you build and scale out more, you'll incur different problems like, hey, this electrical switch needs something, this networking thing needs resolution here or this immersion system needs to be altered quite a bit. None of them are critical or big roadblocks. They are just the kind of punches that you roll with in this business. And through our experience in building this infrastructure at scale, we've become quite good at identifying small issues, resolving and then just continuing to move forward. So kind of to wrap that up, we're very confident about our 31 EH/s goal, and we are just marching forward on that for the next 7 months of the year. Okay. That concludes our Q&A. Thank you, everyone, for listening in to our presentation and for the questions from our analysts. Very excited about what we have executed on Corsicana. We'll be providing updates as we always do on a monthly basis going forward. And look forward to speaking with everyone and sharing more results after the end of Q2 and Q2 results in August. So with that, thank you, everyone. Have a good day.

Operator

Operator

This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation, and have a wonderful day.