Hut 8 announced a $9.8 billion AI data center lease agreement, one of the largest single datacenter lease transactions on record.
Shares of Hut 8 (NASDAQ:HUT) surged 10% to $100.58 in Monday morning trading following the energy infrastructure operator's announcement of a second hyperscale AI data center lease that fully commercializes its flagship Texas campus. The move extends a volatile month for the stock, which had declined 23% in the four weeks prior to the announcement.
The rally pulled peer miners higher in sympathy. Marathon Digital (NASDAQ:MARA) gained 8% to $11.57, while Riot Platforms (NASDAQ:RIOT) rose 4% to $19.03. The CoinShares Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (NASDAQ:WGMI) climbed 8% to $51.58. Notably, the sector rallied even as Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC) traded slightly lower at $64,317 over the past 24 hours, signaling the move was specific to the AI infrastructure theme rather than crypto-driven.
Hut 8 secured a second 15-year, $9.8 billion lease for its 1-gigawatt Beacon Point AI data center campus in Nueces County, Texas. An investment-grade tenant doubled its contracted footprint to 704 MW, bringing the campus base-term contract value to $19.6 billion, with potential total value reaching $50.2 billion if all renewal options are exercised. The total contracted portfolio across Beacon Point and River Bend facilities now stands at $26.6 billion, with expected average annual net operating income exceeding $1.75 billion.
The Phase 2 data hall spans 352 MW and was designed to NVIDIA's (NASDAQ:NVDA) DSX reference architecture, directly tying Hut 8 to the NVIDIA AI factory buildout described by CEO Jensen Huang as "the largest infrastructure expansion in human history." Campus energization is scheduled for Q1 2027, with first Phase 2 delivery expected in Q2 2028. Beacon Point was originally developed for American Bitcoin before conversion to AI leases.
Keefe, Bruyette & Woods maintained an Outperform rating with a $138 price target. Benchmark raised its target to $165 from $85, while Lucid Capital Markets initiated coverage at Buy with a $226 price target. The analyst community views Hut 8's shift toward contracted, investment-grade cash flow as commanding a premium relative to the mining peer set.
Marathon Digital and Riot Platforms rallied on renewed enthusiasm for the Bitcoin-miner-to-AI-infrastructure pivot rather than company-specific catalysts. Marathon is pursuing transition through a Starwood partnership converting approximately 90% of non-hosted mining capacity to AI and critical IT compute, plus a pending acquisition of the 505 MW Long Ridge Energy plant expected to close in H2 2026. Riot has already generated revenue from its $636 million, 10-year Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) lease at Rockdale and targets portfolio NOI of $1.6 billion to $2.1 billion upon full development.
The WGMI ETF offers basket exposure to the cohort but carries meaningful concentration risk and volatility. The next catalyst for Hut 8 is its Q2 2026 earnings release on August 4, which management has flagged may reflect accounting headwinds from mark-to-market adjustments. For Marathon Digital and Riot Platforms, the market read is clearer: if hyperscale tenants continue signing 15-to-20-year deals at gigawatt scale, the miner-to-AI pivot narrative likely has further runway.