Bitcoin miner Hut 8 saw its shares rise over 10% on Monday after the Toronto Stock Exchange- and Nasdaq-listed company announced it had signed a second 15-year lease worth $9.8 billion for its AI data center. The deal doubles the tenant's capacity at Hut 8's Beacon Point campus in Texas to 704 megawatts. The move reflects a broader industry shift as Bitcoin miners increasingly pivot to AI infrastructure amid mining profitability challenges.
Hut 8 Shares Rise Over 10% on Monday
Hut 8 shares peaked as high as $106 before dropping to around $101. They closed Monday up over 10%.
Beacon Point Campus Contract Reaches $19.6 Billion Base Value
The deal will see the Toronto-based firm's Beacon Point campus in Texas data center cover 352 megawatts of IT capacity. The tenant using the data center will have its capacity doubled to 704 MW. Hut 8 added that the campus has a base-term contract value of $19.6 billion over 15 years, rising to as much as $50.2 billion if renewal options are exercised.
CEO Asher Genoot Highlights Tenant Commitment
Asher Genoot, CEO of Hut 8, said: "The real test of our power-first approach is what our partners are willing to commit against it. Our tenant at Beacon Point chose to double its footprint at the site, the strongest validation an asset can receive."
Hut 8 Signed American Data Centers Partnership Last Year
Hut 8 last year signed a deal with American Data Centers Inc., a company backed by President Donald Trump's sons Eric and Donald Jr., to contribute its Bitcoin mining equipment and help debut their American Bitcoin mining firm.
Google-Backed Partnership Secured in December
The company in December secured a Google-backed partnership with Anthropic and Fluidstack to build up to 2.3 gigawatts of AI data center capacity in the U.S.
Bitcoin Miners Shift to AI Infrastructure
Hut 8 is one of a number of top publicly listed miners that have started directing resources to providing the infrastructure for high-powered computing. A number of Bitcoin miners have already gone all-in on the industry as minting the biggest digital coin by market cap becomes harder and demand for AI compute surges. As the price of Bitcoin has dipped, it has become harder for Bitcoin miners to make ends meet.
Nasdaq-listed Bitfarms last year announced that it would wind down mining operations to focus on high-performance computing. Instead of dropping mining operations completely, a number of Bitcoin miners have instead marketed themselves as "compute" or "digital infrastructure" companies while switching between minting digital coins and providing compute for AI, depending on which is more profitable.
Top miners Terawulf, IREN, and Cipher Mining all last year signed multi-year HPC contracts with Alphabet Inc.'s Google and Microsoft. Both the crypto mining and HPC industries require huge amounts of energy and data centers, but the move isn't always easy: AI data centers require more expertise than Bitcoin mining.
FAQ
What did Hut 8 announce on Monday?
Hut 8 announced it had signed a second 15-year lease worth $9.8 billion for its AI data center at the Beacon Point campus in Texas, doubling the tenant's capacity to 704 megawatts.
How much is Hut 8's Beacon Point contract worth?
The Beacon Point campus has a base-term contract value of $19.6 billion over 15 years, rising to as much as $50.2 billion if renewal options are exercised.
Why are Bitcoin miners pivoting to AI infrastructure?
As the price of Bitcoin has dipped, it has become harder for Bitcoin miners to make ends meet, while demand for AI compute surges, prompting miners to direct resources to high-powered computing infrastructure.
