Hut 8 (NASDAQ: HUT) climbed 30% in pre-market trading on Wednesday after unveiling a new long-term AI infrastructure lease that significantly expands its hyperscale data center ambitions.
The Miami-based company said it signed a 15-year triple-net lease with a base contract value of approximately $9.8 billion for 352 megawatts of IT capacity at its Beacon Point campus in Nueces County, Texas. While the tenant was not named, Hut 8 described it as an investment-grade-rated company deploying infrastructure for AI training and inference workloads.
A Second Major AI Campus Commercialized
The agreement marks Hut 8’s second large-scale AI data center commercialization following its previously announced River Bend project with AI cloud company Fluidstack. Combined, the two campuses now represent 597 MW of contracted IT capacity and an aggregate base contract value of roughly $16.8 billion, according to the company.
Beacon Point itself is being developed as a gigawatt-scale campus. Hut 8 said the site has 1,000 MW of utility capacity under its interconnection agreement with AEP Texas. The first phase of the project is expected to include about 500 MW of utility capacity supporting the full 352 MW IT load. The company expects that phase to begin operations in Q1 2027, with initial data hall deliveries targeted for Q3 2027.
Potential Revenue and Contract Upside
Once stabilized, Beacon Point is expected to generate approximately $655 million in average annual net operating income. Hut 8 also noted that the lease includes three five-year extension options, which could increase the total potential contract value to about $25.1 billion.
The structure of the agreement reflects a broader trend in AI infrastructure financing, where operators increasingly favor long-duration, infrastructure-style leases backed by high-credit-quality counterparties. Hut 8 said it intends to finance the Beacon Point development through an asset-backed financing structure designed to lower the cost of capital while limiting pressure on corporate leverage ratios.
From Bitcoin Mining to AI Infrastructure
The announcement also highlights the accelerating shift among bitcoin miners and power-centric infrastructure operators toward AI and hyperscale computing. As demand for dense GPU deployments continues to rise, companies with access to large-scale power are increasingly repositioning former or potential mining campuses into AI-oriented facilities.
Hut 8 explicitly framed Beacon Point as an example of its “power-first” development strategy. Under that approach, the company prioritizes securing large blocks of power capacity first and then determines the highest-value commercial use for the site. According to Hut 8, Beacon Point was originally designed to support its affiliated bitcoin mining venture, American Bitcoin (NASDAQ: ABTC), before being redirected toward AI infrastructure.
Design Changes Lifted Capacity by 57%
The company further disclosed that it redesigned the first building at Beacon Point after the evolving NVIDIA DSX AI factory reference architecture increased rack-level power density requirements. As a result, the planned IT capacity for the building rose from 224 MW to 352 MW, representing a 57% increase without expanding the land footprint or the underlying utility footprint.
That detail is notable because it shows how quickly data center specifications are changing as AI workloads grow more power-intensive. Developers are being pushed to optimize every layer of infrastructure, from electrical interconnection and cooling design to rack density and floor layout. In Hut 8’s case, the redesign appears to have materially improved the economic profile of the site without requiring additional land or utility expansion.
Capital Strategy and Prior Financing Activity
Hut 8 said Beacon Point will be financed using asset-level capital structures, an approach that can help ring-fence project risk and reduce direct strain on the parent company’s balance sheet. This is increasingly relevant in a market where capital-intensive AI data center projects require massive upfront investment but can also secure strong long-term cash flow visibility when backed by long-duration leases.
The Beacon Point announcement follows another major financing move by the company. Earlier last month, Hut 8 separately closed a $3.25 billion bond offering to fund its River Bend campus, which is tied to a separate 15-year lease agreement with Fluidstack.
Taken together, the two projects indicate that Hut 8 is moving beyond the traditional profile of a bitcoin miner and positioning itself as a developer and operator of large-scale digital infrastructure. While bitcoin mining remains part of its history and ecosystem, the company is increasingly emphasizing the value of secured power capacity and long-term contracted compute demand.
For the market, the immediate response was clear: investors interpreted the Beacon Point lease as a strong validation of Hut 8’s strategy. The sharp pre-market move suggests confidence that long-term AI infrastructure contracts may offer a more stable and potentially more lucrative path than relying solely on mining economics, especially in an environment where access to power and financing has become a core competitive advantage.