Hut 8 mentioned Wednesday it has signed a deal valued at about $7 billion to lease an information heart in Louisiana, underscoring how former bitcoin miners are pivoting towards synthetic intelligence internet hosting.
The corporate’s shares rose 21% in premarket buying and selling, including to an roughly 80% acquire this yr.
Deal particulars
Hut 8 mentioned it’s going to signal a 15-year lease settlement to develop a 245-megawatt knowledge heart on the River Bend campus.
Development of the primary section is anticipated to be accomplished by early 2027.
Miners pivot to AI internet hosting
Reuters mentioned the shift from bitcoin mining to AI internet hosting has develop into a key development for companies akin to Hut 8, CoreWeave, and Utilized Digital.
The businesses are repurposing entry to high-voltage energy, cooling methods, and specialised actual property, which have develop into scarce as AI builders race to deploy Nvidia {hardware}.
Hut 8, as soon as a pure-play bitcoin miner, has spent the final yr repositioning itself as an vitality infrastructure platform.
Companions and potential scale
The brand new deal entails partnerships with AI mannequin developer Anthropic and infrastructure supplier Fluidstack.
Alphabet-owned Google is offering a monetary backstop for the 15-year time period.
The settlement can also be a part of a broader collaboration between Hut 8 and Anthropic that would finally scale to 2.3 gigawatts of capability.
Hut 8 mentioned final month it had a complete energy pipeline of 8.65 gigawatts, spanning early-stage web site diligence via 1.53 gigawatts of late-stage tasks underneath lively growth.