Hut 8’s $9.8 Billion AI Lease Sparks Rally Across Bitcoin Mining Stocks By Matt Brienen Published: 2026-07-20T21:16:24+00:00 --- ### Hut 8 Secures Another Massive AI Data Center Deal Hut 8 shares surged after the company announced a second 15-year lease worth $9.8 billion for its Beacon Point AI data center campus in Texas, providing another major validation for its expansion beyond traditional Bitcoin mining. The new agreement covers 352 megawatts of information technology capacity and was signed with the same investment-grade customer that leased Beacon Point’s first phase. The customer’s total contracted footprint at the campus has now doubled to 704 megawatts. Hut 8 said the agreement fully commercializes the site’s planned one-gigawatt power capacity. Across both phases, Beacon Point now carries a combined base-term contract value of $19.6 billion. Renewal options could eventually increase the campus-level value to approximately $50.2 billion. The company expects to begin delivering the first data hall from the second phase during the second quarter of 2028. Hut 8 also redesigned the campus around Nvidia’s data center architecture, allowing it to increase computing capacity within the same land and utility footprint. --- ### IREN Adds $2.8 Billion in AI Cloud Contracts The enthusiasm extended beyond Hut 8 after IREN announced $2.8 billion in new multiyear cloud-services contracts with several AI developers. IREN raised its year-end 2026 annualized run-rate revenue target for its AI Cloud business from $3.7 billion to more than $4 billion. Approximately 85% of that targeted run rate is now supported by contracts, according to the company. IREN’s AI customer base includes Microsoft, Nvidia, Perplexity, Figure AI, Together AI and several other artificial intelligence developers. The company said demand from hyperscalers, enterprises, frontier laboratories and AI developers continues to exceed its available and planned capacity. Recent customers have also agreed to prepayments representing roughly 45% of the associated GPU capital expenditures. This reduces the amount IREN must finance directly while providing additional evidence that customers are willing to commit capital to secure access to computing capacity. IREN is targeting 480 megawatts of AI Cloud capacity during 2026 and approximately 1.2 gigawatts in 2027. However, its annualized revenue target remains an operating projection rather than recognized revenue and still depends on construction, GPU delivery, commissioning, testing and customer acceptance. --- ### Bitcoin Mining Stocks Rally on the Announcements Hut 8 climbed as much as 17% following the announcement, while IREN gained as much as 19%. The momentum spread across companies associated with Bitcoin mining and high-performance computing. Cipher Mining advanced approximately 11%, TeraWulf gained more than 6%, Riot Platforms rose roughly 5% and MARA Holdings climbed around 9%. The CoinShares Bitcoin Miners ETF also moved approximately 8.5% higher. The broad reaction suggests investors viewed the contracts as more than isolated company wins. They provided fresh evidence that demand for power-intensive AI infrastructure remains strong despite recent concerns about excessive data center construction and the possibility that more efficient AI models could reduce future compute requirements. --- ### AI Is Changing the Bitcoin Mining Investment Thesis Bitcoin miners were originally valued primarily according to their mining capacity, energy costs, Bitcoin production and exposure to the cryptocurrency’s price. AI is beginning to give select operators a second path to monetizing their power portfolios. Companies with large electrical interconnections, suitable land and experience operating energy-intensive facilities may be able to convert portions of their infrastructure into AI data centers or lease capacity to investment-grade technology customers. Long-term AI agreements can potentially provide more predictable revenue than Bitcoin mining, where profitability fluctuates with Bitcoin prices, network difficulty, transaction fees and electricity costs. That possibility has helped create a valuation gap between miners with credible AI strategies and those still dependent almost entirely on cryptocurrency production. The transition is not guaranteed. AI campuses require substantial construction spending, specialized cooling systems, advanced networking equipment and reliable access to high-end GPUs. Projects can also face permitting delays, power-delivery issues and customer-concentration risks. Still, the scale of the latest contracts strengthens the argument that power access has become one of the most valuable assets in the AI economy. For Bitcoin miners capable of converting that access into institutional-grade computing infrastructure, the opportunity may extend far beyond mining alone.