KBW keeps Bitdeer at Market Perform as $100 million Rockdale deal clears land hurdle

KBW keeps Bitdeer at Market Perform as $100 million Rockdale deal clears land hurdle

William Foxley

Wed, September 2, 2026 at 5:25 PM GMT+3 3 min read

• BTDR +10.89%

KBW analyst Stephen Glagola is maintaining his Bitdeer (NASDAQ: BTDR) "Market Perform" rating with a $10 price target, per a bank note published Wednesday. The target implies 3.4% downside from the $10.35 share price listed in the note. KBW previously cut its target from $14 in August.

The update comes after Bitdeer bought about 200 acres near its Rockdale, Texas, facility for approximately $100 million in cash on Tuesday, removing a land-control constraint on potential AI/HPC development.

Glagola said the purchase price was below KBW's prior estimate of roughly $131 million. The firm had expected Bitdeer to pay a premium because of the parcel's development flexibility and the possibility that the seller would retain control over infrastructure rights.

Stay ahead of AI infrastructure deals. Get Blockspace in your inbox.

Bitdeer now has fee-simple ownership of the greenfield parcel next to its existing 50-acre Rockdale site. Bitdeer said its Milam County properties encompass approximately 255 acres that it owns or operates, along with 742 MW of existing and pipeline electrical capacity.

That total includes about 563 MW of interconnected capacity and 179 MW in planning. Bitdeer has not disclosed how much could become critical IT load, making the electrical figures unsuitable for direct comparison with contracted data-center capacity.

KBW said the transaction leaves several material infrastructure questions unresolved. The firm could not determine whether interconnection and water rights controlled by SLR, which KBW understood to be the seller, transferred with the land or were covered by a separate agreement.

Ownership of SLR's Rockdale substation also remains unclear. During a May site visit, KBW found that Bitdeer did not appear interested in buying the aging substation and had not procured a replacement. Tuesday's announcement provided no update on that process.

Bitdeer Chief Financial Officer Michael G. Potter said outright ownership removes lease-renewal risk and allows Bitdeer to maintain its existing cryptocurrency mining operations while developing the new parcel. "Rockdale is one of the best-connected locations in our portfolio, and we believe it is well positioned to receive additional power over the coming years," Potter said.

Riot paid $96 million for its own 200-acre Rockdale parcel in January, making the two land prices broadly comparable. Riot paired that acquisition with a 25 MW critical IT lease to AMD and has since disclosed 241 MW of contracted critical IT capacity at Rockdale, including a 191 MW lease with an unnamed frontier AI lab.

Bitdeer has not announced a Rockdale tenant. KBW said discussions appeared preliminary during its May visit because Bitdeer had not secured the land, while the intended model remains unsettled between colocation and AI cloud. Needham also identified Rockdale as Bitdeer's most likely next colocation site in an August note, but cited limited pipeline visibility.

Stay ahead of AI infrastructure deals. Get Blockspace in your inbox.

KBW expects Bitdeer to provide more detail on Rockdale's development and commercialization strategy over the coming months. Until then, the land purchase resolves site control but leaves the substation plan, infrastructure rights and tenant path undetermined.