Bitcoin Miner Hut 8 Pivots to AI Infrastructure With $7 Billion Data Center Lease

Hut 8, once best known for bitcoin-mining infrastructure, is repositioning its power portfolio for artificial intelligence. Its 525-acre Beacon Point campus in Nueces County, Texas, has access to as much as 1 gigawatt of electricity and an existing grid connection. Those assets have become increasingly valuable as AI developers race to secure energy-intensive data-center capacity, while new grid connections can take years, making former crypto infrastructure a ready-made bridge into the computing boom.

Reports on Sept. 1 said Anthropic agreed to buy $35 billion of computing capacity from Nvidia-backed cloud provider Lambda, with about 350 megawatts expected to run through Beacon Point and Nvidia holding the site lease. Hut 8 disclosed on July 20 that two 15-year leases at the campus cover 704 MW and carry $19.6 billion in base-term contract value. Initial energization is scheduled for the first quarter of 2027, though Hut 8 has not confirmed Anthropic’s exact share of the leased capacity.

Bitdeer, best known for Bitcoin mining and its proprietary mining rigs, has been redeploying its power and data-center portfolio toward AI cloud and high-performance computing infrastructure. The Tydal conversion is significant because it could replace volatile mining economics with long-duration contracted revenue. The project also highlights a broader industry shift as cryptocurrency miners seek to monetize scarce power connections and facilities amid surging demand for AI computing capacity.

Bitdeer said on Aug. 4, 2026, that its Tydal Data Center AS unit signed a 16-year colocation lease and services agreement with Volta subsidiary Volta Tydal AS. The contract covers 121 IT megawatts and about $4.7 billion of scheduled revenue, potentially rising to $8 billion with an eight-year extension. The two phases are targeted to begin on Dec. 31, 2026, and March 31, 2027. Bitdeer shares jumped to about $14.50 intraday after the announcement before retreating toward $12.40.

Hut 8 began as a Bitcoin mining company but has expanded its energy and computing assets into AI data centers in recent years. River Bend, located in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, is a multibillion-dollar development in its first phase alone. The water investment is critical to campus construction and local supply resilience, and it also reflects the company’s shift toward long-term AI infrastructure operations.

On May 19, 2026, Hut 8 announced an agreement with West Feliciana Parish to invest about $16 million in a new water well, roughly eight miles of transmission pipelines and other system upgrades. The work is expected to be completed in the second half of 2026 and then transferred to the parish at no cost. Taxpayers will bear no expense, and the project is estimated to benefit more than 4,000 households and over 200 employers.

Canada-founded Hut 8 began primarily as a bitcoin miner but has shifted in recent years toward using its power assets to support large-scale computing facilities. Deploying the first phase of its Beacon Point campus in Texas for AI extends its revenue model beyond cryptocurrency cycles into long-term infrastructure contracts. It also gives the company an entry into the high-density AI computing market through the NVIDIA DSX architecture.

Hut 8 said on May 6, 2026, that it had signed a 15-year lease for its Beacon Point campus in Nueces County, Texas. The agreement covers 352 MW of IT capacity and has a total base-term contract value of $9.8 billion, with annual rent increases of 3%. Hut 8 shares rose as much as about 36% in U.S. premarket trading after the announcement.

Core Scientific, traditionally focused on Bitcoin mining, is redirecting its existing power and data center assets toward hosting high-density AI computing. Rising electricity demand from AI model training has made miners' grid capacity and land holdings an advantage in the transition, which could also reshape the company's future revenue mix.

Core Scientific most recently announced that its Pecos site in Texas would join a data center plan totaling up to 1.5GW. It will also reallocate the site's existing 300MW of mining capacity to AI infrastructure. As of July 20, 2026, the company had not disclosed the investment amount, customer roster or full deployment schedule.