Viper Energy owns mineral and royalty interests in oil and natural gas properties, concentrated almost entirely in the Permian Basin's Midland and Delaware sub-basins. Viper does not drill or operate wells — instead, Viper owns the underlying mineral rights, leases them to operators, and collects a royalty (a percentage of production revenue) with no drilling or operating cost burden. As of year-end 2025, Viper held approximately 96,000 net royalty acres across roughly 43,000 gross productive wells. Diamondback Energy is Viper's largest operator, running about 35% of Viper's net royalty acreage, and also owns approximately 42% of Viper's voting power. Diamondback provides all management and administrative services — Viper has no employees of its own. Revenue is driven by production volumes on Viper's acreage and commodity prices, with oil being the most important commodity. Because Viper bears no drilling or operating costs, free cash flow conversion is structurally high. Viper grows organically as operators drill new wells on its acreage at no cost to Viper, and through acquisitions — including a ~$4B all-equity acquisition of Sitio Royalties in 2025 and a ~$873M drop-down of Endeavor-related royalties from Diamondback. Viper divested all non-Permian assets in early 2026 for ~$617M, making it a pure-play Permian mineral and royalty company. Viper returns capital through base and variable dividends and share repurchases, and uses commodity hedges to manage cash flow volatility.