$9.8 billion, 15 years, 352 megawatts: one lease, signed by a company better known as a bitcoin miner.
On May 6, Hut 8 said the first phase of its Beacon Point data center campus in Nueces County, Texas, had been leased to an undisclosed investment-grade hyperscale customer for AI training and inference. If all three five-year renewal options are used, the total contract value could rise from $9.8 billion to $25.1 billion. Hut 8 shares jumped 30% that day and touched an intraday record.
How big the lease is
| Item | Figure |
|---|---|
| Initial term | 15 years |
| Capacity | 352 MW |
| Base contract value | $9.8 billion |
| Annual rent escalator | 3.0% |
| Renewal options | Three five-year terms |
| Total value with renewals | $25.1 billion |
| First data hall delivery | Q3 2027 |
At 352 MW, the site is closer to two city-scale data centers than to a normal facility. Only a short list of customers can absorb that much capacity alone: OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, Microsoft, Google, Meta and a few cloud platforms. The lease structure also looks like infrastructure finance: a 15-year term, 3% annual escalator and triple-net style obligations in which the tenant carries taxes, insurance and maintenance.
NVIDIA is visible in the design
Beacon Point is being designed to NVIDIA's DSX reference architecture for gigawatt-scale AI infrastructure. Cooling, power distribution, rack density and networking are being planned for Blackwell and Rubin-class GPU systems. That points to a tenant inside the NVIDIA ecosystem and shows how quickly NVIDIA's gigawatt AI factory templates are moving into real facilities.
Why Hut 8 is in the deal
Five years ago, Hut 8 was a pure bitcoin miner worth less than $500 million. After this contract, the company says it has signed 597 MW of AI data center capacity with $16.8 billion in contracted value. The pivot is logical: miners already control cheap power, large industrial sites and high-density electrical infrastructure. Remove mining rigs, raise rack density and add liquid cooling, and a bitcoin site can become an AI factory.
The revenue is steadier than mining, which depends on bitcoin prices, network difficulty and power costs. A 15-year AI data center lease with 3% annual growth is almost another business. Hut 8 has not named the customer, but the field is narrow: Microsoft, Anthropic, SpaceX-linked demand, xAI and other top-tier cloud or model companies all fit the profile.
AI compute is still accelerating
The deal landed amid a wider infrastructure rush. The same day, NVIDIA signed a long-term agreement with Corning to expand U.S. fiber capacity, EdgeCore raised $1.5 billion for two Northern Virginia hyperscale sites, and forecasts for 2026 global AI data center investment kept moving above $500 billion. Texas grid pressure remains a constraint, and ERCOT has warned that new large-load customers may face queues. Beacon Point's Q3 2027 first delivery suggests grid interconnection may be as tight as construction itself.
The signal is clear: AI compute buyers are willing to reserve capacity 18 months ahead, sign 15-year contracts, use NVIDIA-standard architecture and commit $9.8 billion. There is no visible slowdown in that behavior.
Sources: CocoLoop; Hut 8 shares jump over 30% on news of $9.8 billion AI data center lease (CoinDesk); Hut 8 Commercializes First Phase of 1 GW Beacon Point AI Data Center Campus (PR Newswire); Hut 8 surges 27% on $9.8 billion lease signing with undisclosed tenant (Blockspace)