Hut 8 stock soars 21% premarket after signing $7B AI lease backed by Google

Bitcoin miner Hut 8 has formed a strategic partnership with Fluidstack to lease its AI data center at the River Bend in a deal backed by Google. The agreement also features Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan as left loan underwriters and active loan structurers.

Hut 8, an energy infrastructure platform and Bitcoin miner, announced on December 17 that it had signed a 15-year agreement worth $7 billion with Fluidstack to lease its AI data center at the River Bend campus in Louisiana. The move is part of the miner’s efforts to meet the growing global demand for AI infrastructure. 

The news sent the stock soaring 21% in premarket trading. According to data from Google Finance, a real-time financial information platform, the stock’s premarket performance has erased its 5-day loss, now standing at just 1.38%. The data also shows Hut 8 is up 15% in the last month, and its YTD gain stands at 80% at the time of this publication.

The agreement gives Fluidstack a Right of First Offer (ROFO) for up to an additional 1,000 MW of IT capacity at future expansion phases of the campus, subject to the expansion of power at the site. According to a press release, the company announced that Google will provide financial support to cover the lease payments and related pass-through obligations.

Hut 8’s CEO Asher Genoot said that the agreement is expected “to deliver next-generation AI and high-performance computing infrastructure at scale.” Genoot highlighted that the deal will also involve other players, including the State of Louisiana, Entergy, J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Vertiv, and Jacobs.

According to the announcement, the partnership places J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC as lead left loan underwriters and active loan structurers in the project-level financing. Entergy will provide utility capacity, while Jacobs and Vertiv will facilitate engineering and infrastructure innovation and development.

The company estimates that the agreement will generate a cumulative net operating income (NOI) of $6.9 billion over the contract’s base term, averaging approximately $454 million annually. According to the statement, the alliance also includes three 5-year renewal options that could increase the contract’s value to approximately $17.7 billion. The initial River Bend data hall is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2027, with additional halls scheduled for completion throughout the year.

Hut 8 partners with Anthropic and Fluidstack to deploy hyperscale AI infrastructure in the U.S.  

In a separate announcement dated December 17, Hut 8 announced that it had entered into another strategic partnership with Anthropic and Fluidstack to accelerate the deployment of hyperscale AI infrastructure in the U.S. 

According to the statement, Hut 8 will leverage high-performance clusters operated by Fluidstack to develop and deliver at least 245 megawatts (MW) and up to 2,295 MW of AI data center infrastructure for Anthropic. The partnership will also launch at Hut 8’s River Bend campus. 

James Bradbury, Head of Compute at Anthropic, said the partnership is an extension of the existing alliance between Anthropic and Fluidstack. Bradbury also said that the partnership aims to “bring additional capacity online by early 2027.”

Hut 8 posted a Q3 revenue of $83.5 million on November 4. According to a previous report by Cryptopolitan, the company announced that $70 million originated from its compute business, which includes hosting revenue from its crypto mining arm, American Bitcoin (ABTC), as well as the high-performance compute segment.

From the remaining revenue, $8.4 million originated from its power generation and managed services unit, while $5.1 million emanated from digital infrastructure offerings for its hosting service business. Hut 8’s financial statements revealed that its net income soared to $50.6 million, up from just $0.9 million recorded in Q3 last year.

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