Hut 8 signs a $9.8 billion AI data center deal for a 15-year lease; the stock surges 36% pre-market

Canadian-listed mining/data center company Hut 8 (Nasdaq: HUT) announced on May 6 that its Beacon Point 1GW AI data center campus in Nueces County, Texas has signed a 15-year lease for the first phase’s 352MW capacity, with a base contract value of $9.8 billion. Hut 8’s official press release explained that the lease structure is a triple-net lease (NNN), including a 3% annual escalator; once stabilized, it is expected to generate average annual net operating income (NOI) of $655 million. The market reaction was strong—Hut 8’s U.S. shares surged as much as 36% in premarket trading.

Lease structure: starts at $9.8 billion, with up to $25.1 billion possible including three 5-year renewal options

Key numbers in this deal:

15-year term, base contract value of $9.8 billion

3% annual rent increases; cumulative NOI expected at $9.8 billion; average annual $655 million

Includes three 5-year renewal options—if all are exercised, the total contract value could reach approximately $25.1 billion

The tenant is described as a “highly investment-grade enterprise customer,” and Hut 8 did not disclose the tenant’s name

This lease is one of the largest single contracts in the AI data center market since 2026 to date. For Hut 8, this transaction raises the company’s total contracted AI data center capacity to 597MW, with cumulative contract value of about $16.8 billion and average annual NOI of $1.1 billion—this scale further pushes Hut 8 from “a mining company” to a “specialized AI infrastructure provider.”

Specifications: 352MW, built based on the NVIDIA DSX reference architecture

Beacon Point first-phase build specifications:

352MW IT capacity, designed based on NVIDIA DSX gigawatt-class AI infrastructure reference architecture

Tenant will deploy dedicated compute infrastructure for very large-scale AI training and inference workloads

Hut 8 has executed 1,000MW of utility power interconnection agreements—indicating the campus has the capacity to expand to full 1GW power supply

Initial power-up is expected in Q1 2027, with first-phase data center shell delivery expected in Q3 2027

The “NVIDIA DSX reference architecture” is NVIDIA’s standardized construction template for very large-scale AI training facilities, covering key specifications such as power allocation, cooling, networking, and rack density. Adopting the DSX architecture means the tenant can directly deploy NVIDIA’s latest-generation GPU systems in the future—an important selling point for high-density AI compute infrastructure.

Next to watch: whether the tenant identity is disclosed, and when the full 597MW comes online

Specific trackable events following this case:

Tenant identity—Hut 8 describes it as a “highly investment-grade enterprise customer.” Market speculation suggests it could be a large cloud provider or an AI model company, and the exact name may be revealed in subsequent earnings calls or SEC filings

Power-on in 2027 Q1 and delivery of the first-phase data halls in Q3—the construction progress directly affects the contract revenue recognition timing

Whether the three 5-year renewal options can be executed in practice—this determines whether the final contract value lands at $9.8 billion or approaches $25.1 billion

For the AI infrastructure industry, this case is a concrete example of the 2026 “commercialization of AI data centers”: the upstream mining/land owners and downstream AI compute demand players are tied together through long-term leases covering both power and site capacity. Hut 8’s transformation path could serve as a comparison template for other publicly listed mining companies (such as Marathon and Riot).

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