Hut 8 Shares Jump After $16.8 Billion AI Data Center Lease Deal

Hut 8 Corp (NASDAQ:HUT) presented its first-quarter 2026 corporate report on May 6, 2026, detailing a strategic transformation from Bitcoin mining toward large-scale AI data center infrastructure. The presentation highlighted 16.800 millones de dólares in contractual lease value secured through 15-year triple-net agreements with investment-grade counterparties. Hut 8’s shares jumped 32.89% to $145.47 after the release, reflecting investor enthusiasm for the pivot despite rising losses during the transition. In the same quarter, Hut 8 reported revenue of $71.0 million and operating losses that widened to $370.4 million, while net losses reached $253.1 million.

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Hut 8’s pivot centered on a $9.8 billion deal to lease 352 megawatts of capacity to a third-party AI company over 15 years, positioning the company to monetize large-scale compute beyond Bitcoin mining. The arrangement was described as a 15-year lease tied to Beacon Point, with the company saying it has “a 15-year obligation from a high-investment-grade counterparty” and that the lease features “no termination for convenience.” Hut 8 also said the contract bumps base rent by 3% each year and projects average annual net operating income of $655 million after things settle. Even with the Q1 net loss of more than $253 million, the stock reaction was strong, with one report saying Hut 8 stock climbed 33% despite the loss.

Across the coverage, Hut 8’s AI lease backlog and energy pipeline were framed as the main counterweight to crypto-driven volatility, with one report noting that the company’s contractual lease value in the base-case scenario was $16.8 billion. The same reporting tied the Beacon Point Phase 1 project in Texas to 352 MW of contracted computing capacity and $655 million of average annual net operating revenue, while River Bend in Louisiana was described as having 245 MW under a 15-year lease generating $454 million in average annual net operating revenue. Hut 8’s Q1 results also showed losses heavily affected by $295.7 million of impairment losses on digital assets, and its adjusted EBITDA loss widened to $250.5 million. In parallel, Reuters-cited terms and execution risks remained in focus because the tenant’s name was not disclosed and the filing flagged a list including power needs, hurdles in data-center construction, and threats to cybersecurity.

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