Hut 8 shares surged more than 10% on Monday after the Bitcoin miner said it signed a second 15-year lease worth $9.8 billion for its AI data center campus in Texas. The deal doubles the tenant's committed capacity to 704 megawatts at the Beacon Point site, bringing the base-term contract value of the entire campus to $19.6 billion. If the tenant exercises all renewal options, that figure could climb to $50.2 billion.
Why Hut 8 is doubling down on AI
Hut 8 CEO Asher Genoot said the tenant doubling its footprint is the strongest validation of the company's power-first approach. The company first signaled its AI ambitions last December, when it secured a Google-backed partnership with Anthropic and Fluidstack to build up to 2.3 gigawatts of AI data center capacity across the U.S. That deal came just months after Hut 8 struck a separate agreement with American Data Centers Inc., a company backed by Donald Trump's sons, to contribute Bitcoin mining equipment and help launch American Bitcoin.
The Beacon Point expansion
The new lease covers 352 MW of IT capacity at the Texas campus, exactly matching the first lease signed earlier. That means the tenant is now committed to the full 704 MW the site can support. The base-term value of $19.6 billion over 15 years — or about $1.3 billion per year — makes it one of the largest known data center contracts in the industry. Hut 8 will own and operate the infrastructure, a model that keeps more of the revenue upside versus a traditional colocation deal.
A growing trend among Bitcoin miners
Hut 8 isn't the only miner pivoting to high-performance computing. Bitfarms has been shifting resources toward HPC, and top miners like TeraWulf, IREN, and Cipher Mining all signed multi-year contracts with Google and Microsoft last year. The common thread: Bitcoin mining margins have thinned as prices dipped and network difficulty increased, making AI data centers a more reliable revenue stream. Hut 8's latest deal suggests the market is willing to pay a premium for sites with existing power capacity and a proven operator.
Hut 8 now needs to deliver on the buildout. The Beacon Point campus is fully committed, but construction timelines and infrastructure costs will determine how quickly the revenue starts flowing. The company hasn't disclosed a specific start date for construction, but the sheer scale — 704 MW of IT load — means it will take years to fully equip. For now, investors are betting Hut 8 can execute. Monday's rally says they like the odds.
