AI Data-Center Lease Deal, Hut 8 Surges 14% on Bold $9.8B

Hut 8 Signs Second Beacon Point AI Data Center Lease

Hut 8, a former Bitcoin mining company turned AI data infrastructure provider, signed a second 15-year lease worth $9.8 billion on Monday, July 20, 2026, covering 352 megawatts of IT capacity at its Beacon Point campus in Nueces County, Texas. The deal, struck with the same unnamed investment-grade tenant behind the campus's first phase, fully commercializes the 1-gigawatt site and doubles that customer's contracted footprint to 704 MW. Shares jumped as much as 14%, lifting peers including IREN, Cipher Mining, and TeraWulf as investors who had questioned AI data-center demand regained confidence in the sector.

AI Compute Sector Rallies After Hut 8's Landmark Lease

The triple-net lease raises Beacon Point's base-term contract value to $19.6 billion, with renewal options potentially pushing that figure to $50.2 billion. Across Hut 8's broader portfolio, total contracted AI capacity has grown to 949 MW, backed by 1,330 MW of secured utility capacity, with aggregate base-term contract value reaching $26.6 billion and average annual net operating income exceeding $1.75 billion. The company said the facility is built around Nvidia's DSX reference architecture in partnership with AEP Texas, Vertiv, and Jacobs.

The deal reaffirms strong hyperscaler demand for AI data compute capacity, easing recent investor concerns about oversupply and boosting sentiment across former crypto-mining firms pivoting to AI infrastructure.

With power availability now a central industry constraint, Hut 8's power-first strategy positions it to pursue further large-scale leases as AI training and inference demand continues expanding.

Analysts noted the transaction validates Hut 8's approach of securing power capacity before signing tenants, distinguishing it from competitors still working to lock in electricity access for future AI campuses.