Hut 8 Signs $9.8 Billion AI Data Center Deal: Stock Hits All-Time High

Hut 8 Corp. shares jumped more than 33% on Wednesday. The company announced a 15-year, $9.8 billion lease for an AI data center campus in Texas, pushing the stock to an all-time high of $109.88. A $253 million Q1 net loss barely registered with investors.

For publicly traded Bitcoin miners, this deal sets a concrete precedent. Mining infrastructure can be repurposed for AI and generate far more stable cash flow than coin production alone. Hut 8 just proved that thesis with hard numbers.

$9.8 Billion and 352 MW: The Beacon Point Deal

The contract covers the first phase of the Beacon Point campus in Nueces County, Texas. Hut 8 is leasing 352 megawatts of IT capacity to a confidential, high investment-grade tenant for 15 years. The tenant plans to deploy dedicated compute clusters at high rack-level power densities.

The campus was originally designed for Bitcoin mining but built to Nvidia's DSX architecture, making it AI-ready without major retrofits. This is Hut 8's second hyperscale lease under its "power-first" development model, where the company builds capacity first and signs tenants afterward.

The contract carries a 3% annual rent escalator and three five-year renewal options. With all renewals exercised, the total term could reach 30 years. After signing, Hut 8's total contracted AI capacity reached 597 MW. The aggregate base-term contract value across all active agreements is $16.8 billion, with projected average annual NOI of $1.1 billion.

Q1 2026: $253M Net Loss and Revenue Below Forecasts

First-quarter results came in below analyst expectations. Revenue was $71 million against a FactSet consensus of $78.5 million, and the same period last year generated $88.4 million, a 22% year-over-year decline. Under normal circumstances, that combination would push shares lower.

Hut 8 attributed the $253 million net loss to a drop in the market value of its BTC holdings. The coin fell from an October peak above $126,000 to a February low of $60,000. Revenue from ASIC compute, AI cloud, and traditional cloud solutions combined reached $66 million for the quarter.

Markets did the opposite. Shares rose 33% and hit a record $109.88 on Wednesday. Hut 8's stock has doubled in the past month. Investors are pricing the company as an AI infrastructure business, not a mining operation.

How $9.8 Billion Adds Up: Contract Structure

The math is straightforward. 352 MW times 12 months times 15 years at market AI-colocation rates of $180-250 per MW per month yields $9-11 billion at current prices, before the 3% annual escalation. The $9.8 billion number sits squarely in that range.

Hut 8 retains ownership of the land and buildings throughout the lease term. The tenant brings its own equipment and removes it when the contract ends. For Hut 8, that means recurring operating income with no exposure to equipment depreciation on billions of dollars worth of servers.

If all three renewal options are exercised, the Beacon Point contract could generate more than $25 billion in total revenue over 30 years. Even without renewals, $1.1 billion in annual NOI covers the current quarterly loss in under three months.

Miners vs AI: Who Pays More for Megawatts

"Both industries compete for the same thing: electricity. Right now, AI is willing to pay much more for it."

- Ran Neuner, crypto trader and analyst, from a post on X

Hut 8 made that choice and the numbers back it up. Other public miners are moving in the same direction. MARA and Riot Platforms have signed or are negotiating AI-colocation agreements. Some public mining stocks have already gained 50-85% in 2026 from this industry shift.

Computing power leaving Bitcoin mining for AI hosting gradually reduces the network's total hashrate. Lower hashrate means lower mining difficulty. While total network power stays in the exahash range, a 51% attack remains theoretical. A faster exodus of miners to AI could change that calculus and add volatility to BTC prices.

7,545 MW in the Pipeline: Hut 8's Next Steps

Beacon Point in Nueces County is designed for a full capacity of 1 GW. Phase one wraps up in Q3 2026. Hut 8 is simultaneously developing a pipeline of 7,545 MW across various stages of development and due diligence spanning North America.

If the company monetizes even 20% of that pipeline at terms similar to Beacon Point, total contract value would cross $100 billion. That is the scenario the market is pricing into a stock that doubled in a month despite quarterly losses.

Hut 8 is rewriting the playbook for the mining sector. Bitcoin infrastructure generating cash flow through AI at this scale is something the industry had not seen before. The rest of the sector is already taking notes.