Hut 8 secured a second 15-year lease valued at $9.8 billion for its Beacon Point AI data center in Texas, effectively doubling its contracted footprint there to 704 megawatts and pushing the campus's base contract value to $19.6 billion. This deal is part of a broader expansion as Hut 8 now reports nearly 1 gigawatt of committed IT capacity across its AI-focused portfolio, including 245 megawatts at its River Bend facility. The combined base-term contract value totals $26.6 billion, with projected average annual net operating income exceeding $1.75 billion.

The significance lies in the fact that Hut 8, originally a Bitcoin mining company, is pivoting aggressively into AI infrastructure. A repeat lease by a high-investment-grade tenant at Beacon Point shows strong demand for dedicated AI data center capacity, validating Hut 8's strategy to repurpose and scale its assets beyond cryptocurrency mining.

IREN's Expanding AI Cloud Contracts

Meanwhile, IREN announced $2.8 billion in new multi-year AI cloud contracts and raised its 2026 year-end annualized run-rate revenue target to over $4 billion, up from $3.7 billion. Approximately 85% of this target is already under contract. Notable customers include major AI developers such as Microsoft, NVIDIA, Perplexity, Figure AI, and Together AI, placing IREN at the center of AI cloud infrastructure growth.

The market responded positively, with shares of both Hut 8 and IREN rising by double digits. These developments highlight a competitive shift as former Bitcoin miners use their infrastructure expertise to capture the rapidly growing AI data center segment, which is becoming a critical backbone for AI training workloads.

For investors, these massive long-term contracts provide a level of revenue visibility uncommon in data center operations, while the involvement of high-profile AI firms signals strong industry confidence. The potential renewal options at Hut 8’s Beacon Point could push contract values to over $50 billion, illustrating the scale of opportunity for companies bridging crypto and AI infrastructure.

Hut 8 CEO Asher Genoot emphasized the deal as "the strongest validation an asset can receive" due to the tenant's decision to double its footprint. As AI workloads demand increasing compute power, companies with existing infrastructure advantages are positioning themselves to dominate this emerging market segment.

This information is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.