Dive Brief:

• Bitcoin mining firm Riot Platforms promoted Jason Chung, currently its head of corporate development and strategy, to its top financial seat effective March 1, according to a Jan. 2 press release and securities filing. The shift comes as the business moves to execute on a strategic shift focused on data centers amid the artificial intelligence boom.
• Chung will succeed Colin Yee as CFO for the Castle Rock, Colorado-based company, with Yee stepping down after a three-year tenure in the seat also effective March 1, according to the press release. Yee will remain with the company as a senior advisor to help facilitate a seamless transition and to assist with the company’s “strategic continuity,” Riot said.
• “I am honored to step into the CFO role at such a transformative time for Riot,” Chung said in a statement included in the release. “Having led our corporate development efforts, I see a tremendous opportunity to further integrate our financial discipline with our growth ambitions in digital infrastructure.”

Dive Insight:

Chung joined Riot in his current role in May 2022, according to his LinkedIn profile. Prior to Riot, he served as managing director, M&A for financials services group Nomura, and held an eight-year tenure as VP of M&A for Societe Generale Corporate and Investment Banking.  

Chung will continue to oversee investor relations and corporate development as CFO, while also assuming leadership of Riot’s finance organization, the company said. The business will increase Chung’s base salary from $500,000 to $550,000 upon assuming the CFO seat, according to the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The CFO shift comes as the company continues to execute on a planned pivot to expand beyond bitcoin, including building AI data centers.

Together with the CFO appointment, Riot’s compensation committee also approved changes to several parts of its compensation arrangements, including an update to its annual long-term incentive plan for 2026 to “align executive compensation with the Company’s strategic focus on data center development,” according to the filing. Riot signed new compensation agreements with officers including Chung as its upcoming CFO, its CEO, Jason Les and its executive chairman, Benjamin Yi. 

As part of the compensation changes, Riot eliminated a “bitcoin yield” metric previously included as part of its long-term incentive plan award — noting it no longer serves as a “primary key performance indicator for the Company,” per the filing. Upon gaining a data center tenant, Riot will introduce two new performance metrics, relating to data center revenue and data center net operating income, respectively, the company said.  

Riot also narrowed the discretionary portion of its annual incentive plan for 2026 to focus entirely on its data center strategy execution “to capture milestones supporting long-term infrastructure growth,” Riot said.

“Performance for this metric will be determined solely by the Compensation Committee’s judgment, evaluating management on progress in areas such as infrastructure development, sales and leasing, financing strategy, power portfolio growth, and talent recruitment,” Riot said in the filing. Officers including Chung will be eligible to receive an annual incentive bonus up to 100% of their base salary, per the filing.

The decision to bring executive compensation more in line with its data center pivot follows after Riot took several moves to execute on that strategy last year. The company in June appointed industry veteran Jonathan Gibbs to the role of chief data center officer to drive development of its platforms for hyperscale and enterprise tenants, according to a press release at the time.

In July, Riot acquired an additional 238 acres of land close to its operations in Corsicana, Texas, with the company collectively owning 858 acres in the area as it aggressively pursues its data center plans, according to an Aug. 5 production update.

Riot Platforms did not immediately respond to requests for comment.