Hut 8 signs $9.8 billion AI data center lease, fully commercializes Texas campus
July 20 (Reuters) – Hut 8 turns into crypto mining artificial intelligence The data center company said Monday it has signed a second 15-year lease worth $9.8 billion with an existing investment customer and has fully commercialized its 1-gigawatt Beacon Point campus in Texas.
Shares of the company, which has nearly doubled in size this year, rose about 5% in premarket trading.
Like many former bitcoin miners, Hut 8 has pivoted to AI infrastructure, seeking to leverage power assets and data center expertise developed during the cryptocurrency boom to serve AI customers.
Demand for computing infrastructure has accelerated since the launch of generative AI services, prompting tech companies to devote hundreds of billions of dollars to data centers filled with advanced chips from Nvidia and others.
This rush has shifted competition beyond semiconductors to energy, transmission access and construction-ready sites, and the availability of electricity has become one of the industry’s biggest constraints.
The new deal covers 352 megawatts of IT capacity and will double the unnamed tenant’s total contracted footprint at the site to 704 MW. Hut 8 said the campus currently has a 15-year base term contract value of $19.6 billion, and if renewal options are implemented, that figure will rise to $50.2 billion.
Total contracted AI data center capacity across Hut 8’s portfolio increased to 949 MW, supported by 1,330 MW of service capacity, reaching $26.6 billion in total underlying futures contract value, according to the company. All contracted capacity is leased to or supported by investment-grade counterparties.
Hut 8 said it redesigned its first data hall at Beacon Point around Nvidia architecture, increasing capacity by 57% within the same land and service area. The existing tenant subsequently doubled its contracted capacity on campus.
Hut 8 expects to begin delivering its first Phase 2 data hall in the second quarter of 2028.
(Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Jonathan Ananda)
