Hut 8 Lands $9.8B AI Lease as Texas Site Doubles

Hut 8 shares climbed more than 10% on Monday after the Toronto-based firm announced a $9.8 billion, 15-year lease for its Beacon Point campus in Texas. The Nasdaq- and Toronto Stock Exchange-listed stock peaked at $106 before settling around $101.

The agreement covers 352 megawatts of IT capacity, with the tenant opting to double its total footprint to 704 MW. Combined with a previous lease, the site now holds a base-term contract value of $19.6 billion over 15 years. That figure could reach $50.2 billion if renewal options are exercised.

Asher Genoot, CEO of Hut 8, framed the expansion as a vindication of the company's underlying strategy. “The real test of our power-first approach is what our partners are willing to commit against it,” Genoot said. “Our tenant at Beacon Point chose to double its footprint at the site, the strongest validation an asset can receive.”

The contract highlights a structural shift among publicly listed bitcoin miners toward artificial intelligence infrastructure. Minting the largest digital coin by market capitalization has grown less lucrative as prices have dipped, compressing margins for operators. Simultaneously, surging demand for AI compute has created a highly profitable alternative for firms that control large power supplies.

Hut 8 has moved aggressively to capture the higher returns of high-performance computing. In December, the company partnered with Google-backed Anthropic and Fluidstack to develop up to 2.3 gigawatts of AI data center capacity across the U.S. The firm has maintained ties to its original business, however, having partnered last year with American Data Centers Inc.—backed by Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr.—to supply equipment for their American Bitcoin mining venture.

Hut 8 is not alone in rebranding as a "compute" or "digital infrastructure" company to attract capital. Bitfarms announced last year that it would wind down mining operations to focus entirely on high-performance computing. Meanwhile, Terawulf, IREN, and Cipher Mining have all signed multi-year HPC contracts with Alphabet’s Google and Microsoft.

This operational flexibility allows miners to dynamically allocate power between digital coins and AI workloads depending on which yields better margins. Both industries require massive amounts of electricity and data center space. However, capital markets are likely to scrutinize execution closely, as operating AI data centers demands substantially more technical expertise than traditional cryptocurrency mining.