Hut 8 (HUT) shares are up 20% in pre-market trading after the company announced a landmark long term AI data center lease with Fluidstack.
The bitcoin and AI miner announced it has signed a 15 year, $7 billion lease with AI infrastructure firm Fluidstack for 245 megawatts (MW) of IT capacity at its River Bend campus in Louisiana. It also grants Fluidstack a Right of First Offer (ROFO) for up to an additional 1,000 megawatts of IT capacity as the campus expands.
The agreement includes three 5 year renewal options, increasing the potential total contract value to approximately $17.7 billion.
Google is providing a financial backstop for the base lease term, significantly reducing counterparty risk. Hut 8 expects the deal to deliver $6.9 billion of cumulative net operating income over 15 years, or around $454 million per year.
The River Bend facility is scheduled to begin commissioning in the second quarter of 2027, with project level debt financing expected to cover up to 85% of total development costs. JPMorgan is acting as lead left underwriter, alongside Goldman Sachs.
The announcement follows Cipher Mining’s (CIFR) recent 10-year high performance computing deal with Fluidstack, which also included Google backing.
