Hut 8 signs $7B 15-year Fluidstack lease for 245MW River Bend AI capacity; HUT stock jumps
Hut 8 Corp. agreed a 15-year triple-net lease with AI cloud provider Fluidstack for 245 MW of IT capacity at its River Bend data center campus in Louisiana. The base-term contract is valued at $7.0 billion and includes a 3% annual rent escalator and a right of first offer (ROFO) for up to an additional 1,000 MW of future expansions. Hut 8 estimates roughly $6.9 billion of cumulative net operating income (NOI) from the base term (about $454 million per year); the contract could rise to approximately $17.7 billion if Fluidstack exercises three 5-year renewal options. Project partners named include Entergy (power), J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs (financing), Vertiv and Jacobs (infrastructure/engineering), with Google providing a financial backstop covering lease payments and related obligations during the 15-year base term. Up to 85% of project costs are expected to be debt financed. The first hall is planned to reach production in Q2 2027, with additional halls phased online through 2027. The deal is linked to a broader AI infrastructure plan involving Anthropic, targeting at least 245 MW and potentially up to 2,295 MW for AI workloads. Following the announcement, HUT shares jumped about 25% in premarket trading, lifting market attention and sending Hut 8’s market cap toward roughly $4 billion. Key trading takeaways: material revenue visibility and risk transfer from long-term triple-net lease and Google guarantee; significant capital and execution risk through buildout and financing; repositioning of Hut 8 from primarily bitcoin mining toward AI data-center development, which could create upside if Fluidstack/Anthropic scale operations.
Bullish
The lease materially increases Hut 8’s contracted revenue visibility and de-risks operations through a long-term triple-net agreement backed by Google guarantees. For traders, the immediate reaction (≈25% premarket jump) reflects clearer cash-flow prospects and a strategic pivot from pure bitcoin mining to AI data-center development. Short-term impact: positive price movement driven by improved revenue visibility and investor appetite for AI infrastructure exposure. Volatility remains likely around financing milestones, construction timelines (first hall Q2 2027) and dilution or capital raises needed to fund buildout (up to 85% debt financing expected). Long-term impact: if Fluidstack and Anthropic scale to the larger MW targets, Hut 8 could realize significant upside through steady NOI, improving valuation multiples versus pure mining peers. Conversely, execution, financing, or counterparty risks (build delays, cost overruns, financing shortfalls) could negate gains. Overall, the net effect on HUT is bullish but contingent on successful project delivery and financing.