Hut 8 Corp. introduced a sweeping AI infrastructure partnership on Wednesday with AI mannequin developer Anthropic and compute supplier Fluidstack, marking a reasonably clear sign that the bitcoin miner is pivoting to a large-scale vitality and knowledge heart developer.
Beneath the settlement, Hut 8 will develop between 245 megawatts (MW) and as much as 2,295 MW of AI-focused knowledge heart capability in the USA, starting with a flagship venture at its River Bend campus in Louisiana.
The partnership is structured throughout a number of tranches, making a pathway to scale from an preliminary deployment to gigawatt-level infrastructure over time.
The primary section facilities on a 245 MW IT deployment at River Bend, supported by roughly 330 MW of utility energy. Hut 8 will develop the positioning, whereas Fluidstack will function high-performance compute clusters for Anthropic. Development of the preliminary knowledge halls is anticipated to be accomplished by early 2027.
Past the preliminary section, Fluidstack has secured a proper of first provide for as much as a further 1,000 MW of IT capability at River Bend, contingent on additional energy growth.
A 3rd tranche provides Hut 8 and Anthropic the choice to collectively diligence and develop as much as 1,050 MW of extra capability throughout Hut 8’s broader improvement pipeline.
Financially, the River Bend venture is anchored by a 15-year triple-net lease with Fluidstack valued at roughly $7 billion over the bottom time period, with complete contract worth rising to roughly $17.7 billion if all renewal choices are exercised.
Alphabet-owned Google is offering a monetary backstop masking lease funds and sure working obligations over the bottom time period, underscoring the strategic significance of securing long-term AI compute capability, per Reuters reporting.
Hut 8 ($HUT) inventory soars
Hut 8 shares surged greater than 20% in premarket buying and selling following the announcement, extending a rally that has seen the inventory rise roughly 80% year-to-date.
Buyers seem like rewarding the corporate’s pivot towards AI infrastructure at a time when entry to energy, cooling, and appropriate actual property has turn out to be a bottleneck for main mannequin builders.
“Scaling frontier AI infrastructure is, at its core, an influence problem,” Hut 8 CEO Asher Genoot mentioned in a press release, emphasizing the corporate’s “power-first” improvement technique.
He added that the partnership aligns energy sourcing, knowledge heart design, and compute deployment right into a single built-in platform able to working at gigawatt scale.
For Anthropic, the deal expands an current relationship with Fluidstack and offers a brand new channel for bringing capability on-line as demand for superior fashions continues to develop.
“Hut 8’s skill to supply and ship infrastructure at scale offers the runway essential to proceed advancing the capabilities of our fashions,” mentioned James Bradbury, Anthropic’s head of compute.
The settlement additionally displays a broader trade shift. Former crypto miners akin to Hut 8, CoreWeave, or Bitfarms are more and more repurposing their energy-heavy infrastructure for AI workloads as demand for Nvidia-powered compute accelerates.
Whereas execution threat stays — notably round energy supply timelines and development— Hut 8’s newest deal positions it amongst a small however rising group of corporations bridging the worlds of vitality, AI, and large-scale digital infrastructure.
Hut 8 lately decreased a few of its bitcoin holdings by 389 BTC over the last month, standing out amongst a small group of miners and corporates trimming publicity.
Whereas some corporations added modest quantities and ETF flows turned optimistic, the info factors to a break up market during which Hut 8 and some others acted as sellers amid strain, contrasting with disciplined treasury consumers and programmatic accumulation elsewhere.
On the time of writing, Hut 8 shares are up 17%. Earlier in pre-market buying and selling, shares have been up over 25% at instances. The value per share is presently $43.75.