On July 20, 2026, Hut 8 announced a second 15-year, $9.8 billion lease at its Beacon Point campus in Texas, with the same unnamed investment-grade tenant as the first. Hut 8 already had AI data center leases, so the useful question is what this one adds and what remains unproven.
Key Takeaways
- Hut 8’s July 20, 2026 release describes a second 15-year, 352 MW triple-net lease worth $9.8 billion over the base term, signed by the same unnamed “high-investment-grade” tenant that signed Phase 1 in May.
- Hut 8 already had AI leases: River Bend (245 MW, $7.0 billion, Fluidstack with a Google backstop) and Beacon Point Phase 1. Together they total 949 MW and $26.6 billion of base-term value, with first data halls due from Q2 2027.
- Peer deals differ: TeraWulf leases to Fluidstack with Google backing, Cipher to AWS, and IREN sells GPU cloud to Microsoft. By 2mind’s calculation, one tenant holds 74% of Hut 8’s contracted capacity.
What happened
Hut 8 said on July 20, 2026 that it signed a second 15-year lease for 352 MW of IT capacity at Beacon Point in Nueces County, Texas, worth $9.8 billion over the base term. The tenant is the same “high-investment-grade company” that signed Phase 1.
Bitcoin Magazine said shares closed up over 10% that day.
Hut 8 does not name the tenant in either release. Its release does not tie the tenant to Google or Microsoft. It says only that the tenant doubled its contracted capacity at the campus to 704 MW.
| Term | Phase 1 (May 6, 2026) | Phase 2 (July 20, 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| IT capacity | 352 MW | 352 MW |
| Base-term value | $9.8 billion over 15 years | $9.8 billion over 15 years |
| Expected average annual NOI | $655 million | $655 million |
| First data hall delivery | Q3 2027 | Q2 2028 |
| Tenant | Confidential, high-investment-grade | Same tenant as Phase 1 |
Hut 8 says the second lease has substantially the same terms as the first: triple net, a 3.0% annual rent escalator and three 5-year renewal options. Each lease needs about 500 MW of utility capacity, so the campus’s 1,000 MW interconnection with AEP Texas is now fully committed.
What Hut 8 already had
July’s deal is Hut 8’s third AI lease. In December 2025 it signed River Bend in Louisiana: a 15-year, 245 MW triple-net lease with Fluidstack worth $7.0 billion, with Google backstopping the lease payments. In May 2026 it signed Beacon Point Phase 1.
| Lease | IT capacity | Base-term value |
|---|---|---|
| River Bend, Dec 17, 2025 (Fluidstack, Google backstop) | 245 MW | $7.0 billion |
| Beacon Point Phase 1, May 6, 2026 | 352 MW | $9.8 billion |
| Beacon Point Phase 2, July 20, 2026 | 352 MW | $9.8 billion |
| Total, as stated by Hut 8 | 949 MW | $26.6 billion |
So Hut 8 was already an AI data center landlord before July 20. What July added was a repeat customer: its August 4 results say the Phase 1 tenant “returned within months” to commit to a second lease.
For how lenders look at AI-infrastructure collateral, see our analysis of GPU-backed loans.
What $9.8 billion means per megawatt
These figures are 2mind’s arithmetic from Hut 8’s published values. They assume the base-term value covers the full 15 years and the stated IT megawatts, and they ignore renewals.
| Metric | Beacon Point Phase 2 | River Bend |
|---|---|---|
| Base-term value per MW of IT | $27.8 million | $28.6 million |
| Average per MW per year (value divided by 15) | $1.86 million | $1.90 million |
| Hut 8’s expected average annual NOI | $655 million | $454 million |
Per megawatt, the two leases land within about 3% of each other. River Bend’s payments carry a Google backstop, while the Beacon Point release names no backstop provider, only the tenant’s credit rating category.
The 3.0% escalator means rent rises over the term. If the $9.8 billion is all base rent and the escalator compounds from year two, year-one rent is about $527 million and year 15 about $797 million. Hut 8 publishes no yearly schedule, so this is an illustration only.
What is committed and what is optional
Of the campus’s $50.2 billion headline figure, only $19.6 billion (39%) is base term. The other $30.6 billion (61%) assumes the tenant exercises all three 5-year options on both leases. Hut 8 itself calls the larger figure “potential” contract value.
Concentration is the other number to hold. The Beacon Point tenant has 704 of Hut 8’s 949 contracted MW (74%) and $19.6 billion of its $26.6 billion base-term value (74%). The other tenant is Fluidstack, whose River Bend payments Google backstops.
What has not happened yet
None of the three AI leases has delivered capacity yet. First data halls are targeted for Q2 2027 at River Bend, Q3 2027 at Beacon Point Phase 1 and Q2 2028 at Phase 2.
In the quarter ended June 30, Hut 8 reported $74.9 million of revenue, $72.5 million of it from Compute.
Hut 8 also posted a $177.1 million net loss that quarter, driven by $138.6 million of mostly unrealized losses on digital assets. It closed $7.5 billion of investment-grade financing for River Bend ($3.25 billion) and Beacon Point Phase 1 ($4.25 billion) and is still evaluating structures for Phase 2.
Delivery risk is Hut 8’s own disclosed risk. Its release lists cost overruns, delays, supply chain issues, permitting or regulatory hurdles, and financing conditions.
On August 10 it also responded to a Texas Governor Greg Abbott directive to the state utility regulator and grid operator, saying it will cooperate with their review.
How the peer deals compare
Bitcoin Magazine wrote that TeraWulf, IREN and Cipher Mining all signed multi-year contracts with Google and Microsoft. The companies’ own filings show different counterparties and structures, so the table below sticks to what each published.
| Company | Counterparty | Published terms |
|---|---|---|
| TeraWulf | Fluidstack, with a Google backstop | 10-year hosting leases at Lake Mariner: about $6.7 billion and 360 MW after the Aug 2025 expansion; Google backstop about $3.2 billion |
| Cipher Mining | AWS; also Fluidstack with a Google backstop | 15-year, 300 MW gross AWS lease, about $5.5 billion; 10-year Fluidstack lease with $1.4 billion Google backstop (Nov 2025) |
| IREN | Microsoft | 5-year GPU cloud contract, about $9.7 billion including a 20% prepayment; about $5.8 billion Dell GPU purchase (Nov 2025) |
Only IREN’s contract is directly with Microsoft. TeraWulf’s tenant is Fluidstack, with Google as backstop provider and warrant holder, and Cipher’s AWS lease is directly with Amazon Web Services. IREN also agreed to spend about $5.8 billion on GPUs; the lease-based releases describe no such purchase.
Two Lenses
Reading one: contracted cash flow
Hut 8 says all of its AI capacity is leased to or backstopped by investment-grade counterparties, and the Phase 2 lease is take-or-pay. If delivery goes to plan, that is a steadier revenue base than Bitcoin prices alone.
Reading two: execution and concentration
Nothing is delivered yet, one tenant holds 74% of contracted capacity, Phase 2 financing is open, and Texas regulators are reviewing data center growth. Bitcoin Magazine also notes that AI data centers require more expertise than Bitcoin mining.
This post analyses company disclosures and is not investment advice.
FAQ
Q. Does this mean Hut 8 has stopped mining Bitcoin?
A. Hut 8’s releases do not say it has stopped. It describes itself as an energy infrastructure platform for AI, HPC and ASIC compute, and its Q2 2026 revenue came mostly from Compute (ASIC compute, AI cloud and traditional cloud). Its AI leases begin delivering from Q2 2027.
Q. Who is Hut 8’s customer at Beacon Point?
A. Hut 8 has not named it. Both Beacon Point releases call it a high-investment-grade company, and the first said it will deploy dedicated compute at the campus for AI training and inference workloads at hyperscale.
What would change our view
If Beacon Point’s first data halls arrive on the dates in the release (Phase 1 in Q3 2027) and Phase 2 financing closes on terms like Phase 1’s, the contracted-cash-flow reading gains support. If delivery slips, financing is delayed or Texas rules change, the execution reading gains support.
Sources
- [Bitcoin Miner Hut 8 Shares Jump On $9.8 Billion AI Data Center Deal] — Bitcoin Magazine
- Hut 8 Fully Commercializes 1 GW Beacon Point AI Data Center Campus with Second 352 MW IT Lease — Hut 8 Corp., PR Newswire, July 20, 2026
- Hut 8 Commercializes First Phase of 1 GW Beacon Point AI Data Center Campus — Hut 8 Corp., PR Newswire, May 6, 2026
- Hut 8 Signs 15-Year, 245 MW AI Data Center Lease at River Bend Campus — Hut 8 Corp., PR Newswire, December 17, 2025
- Hut 8 Reports Second Quarter 2026 Results — Hut 8 Corp., PR Newswire, August 4, 2026
- Hut 8 Affirms Commitment to Responsible Data Center Development Following Directive from Texas Governor Greg Abbott — Hut 8 Corp., PR Newswire, August 10, 2026
- TeraWulf Signs 200+ MW, 10-Year AI Hosting Agreements with Fluidstack — TeraWulf, August 14, 2025
- TeraWulf Announces Fluidstack Expansion with 160 MW CB-5 Lease at Lake Mariner — TeraWulf, August 18, 2025
- Cipher Mining business update presentation (Form 8-K Exhibit 99.2) — Cipher Mining, SEC filing, November 3, 2025
- IREN Secures $9.7bn AI Cloud Contract with Microsoft (Form 8-K Exhibit 99.1) — IREN, SEC filing, November 3, 2025
Correction, October 2, 2026. An earlier version gave a Bitcoin price of about $66,570, up 2%, as the same-day figure. Fortune’s daily reports show about $64,200 on Monday morning (down 0.5%) and about $66,300 on Tuesday morning.
Update, October 2, 2026. Retitled and revised using Hut 8’s own releases. The post now gives the deal terms, the earlier leases and a peer comparison from company filings. It drops the Bitcoin, Ethereum and XRP price lines and the claim that three peers signed with Google or Microsoft.
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