Hut 8 lands second $9.8B AI lease as IREN signs $2.8B deals

Hut 8 and IREN announced billions of dollars in new artificial intelligence infrastructure deals on Monday as companies with roots in Bitcoin mining continued expanding into data centers and cloud computing.

Hut 8 signed a second 15-year lease worth $9.8 billion at its Beacon Point AI data center campus in Nueces County, Texas. 

Separately, IREN announced $2.8 billion in new multi-year AI cloud contracts and raised its year-end 2026 annualized run-rate revenue target to more than $4 billion. Shares of both companies rose after the announcements.

Hut 8 fully commercializes 1 GW Texas AI campus

The new Hut 8 agreement covers another 352 megawatts of IT capacity and doubles the existing tenant’s contracted footprint at Beacon Point to 704 MW. The company describes the customer as a high-investment-grade counterparty but has not disclosed its identity. The second agreement brings the campus’s combined base-term contract value to $19.6 billion. 

The latest agreement follows the first $9.8 billion Beacon Point lease announced in May. As crypto.news previously reported, that deal also covered 352 MW under a 15-year contract and used NVIDIA’s DSX reference architecture. At the time, the agreement raised Hut 8’s contracted AI capacity to about 597 MW.

With the second contract, Hut 8 now reports 949 MW of contracted IT capacity across its AI data center portfolio. That includes 704 MW at Beacon Point and 245 MW at River Bend. The portfolio carries a combined base-term contract value of $26.6 billion and expected average annual net operating income above $1.75 billion, according to the company.

“Our tenant at Beacon Point chose to double its footprint at the site, the strongest validation an asset can receive,” Hut 8 CEO Asher Genoot said in announcing the latest agreement. 

Renewal options could raise Beacon Point’s potential total contract value to $50.2 billion.

IREN raises AI Cloud target above $4 billion

IREN, meanwhile, said new contracts with AI developers added $2.8 billion in total contract value. The company raised its year-end AI Cloud annualized run-rate revenue target from $3.7 billion to more than $4 billion, with roughly 85% of that target now under contract.

IREN named Microsoft, NVIDIA, Perplexity, Figure AI, Together AI, Fluidstack, Fireworks AI, Fal AI and Hume AI among its customers. It also said recent agreements include advance payments equal to about 45% of the related GPU capital spending, reducing the amount IREN must fund directly for those deployments. The company held about $7.6 billion in cash and cash equivalents as of June 30, including restricted cash.

“Our vertically integrated AI Cloud platform is scaling at pace,” co-founder and co-CEO Daniel Roberts said. 

IREN has expanded from about 3 MW of self-built AI Cloud capacity over the past year and plans to deliver 480 MW in 2026. It targets 1.2 GW for 2027.

The revised target builds on earlier large contracts. As previously reported, IREN signed a five-year, $3.4 billion agreement with NVIDIA after an earlier $9.7 billion Microsoft deal. The company had previously targeted $3.7 billion in annual recurring revenue by the end of 2026 before raising that figure on Monday.

Bitcoin miners continue shifting toward AI infrastructure

The announcements add to a broader change across the Bitcoin mining industry. Companies that already control large power connections, land and data center infrastructure have increasingly signed contracts with AI customers seeking access to electricity and computing capacity.

As crypto.news reported in June, more than $70 billion in AI and high-performance computing contracts had already been announced across publicly traded mining companies before the latest Hut 8 and IREN deals. The shift includes Hut 8, IREN, TeraWulf, Core Scientific and other companies that built large energy footprints for cryptocurrency mining.

IREN has also expanded beyond North America.The company acquired Nostrum Group, adding 490 MW of secured power in Spain. Its quarterly AI cloud revenue had risen to $33.6 million from $17.3 million in the previous quarter while Bitcoin mining revenue declined.

Hut 8 has followed a similar infrastructure-focused strategy at Beacon Point. The company secured 1,000 MW of utility capacity before signing its long-term tenant agreements, allowing it to commercialize the Texas campus through large AI leases.

Power access becomes central to the AI expansion

The move toward AI has increased investor attention on power capacity held by former and current Bitcoin miners. These companies often already operate near large electricity connections that can take years for new data center developers to secure.

Moreover, Bernstein estimated that Bitcoin miners controlled more than 27 GW of planned power capacity globally. The research argued that existing power infrastructure could shorten development timelines for AI projects compared with new sites waiting for grid connections.

For Hut 8, the second Beacon Point deal leaves the 1 GW campus fully commercialized under its current plan and doubles the tenant’s contracted capacity. For IREN, the new agreements place most of its revised $4 billion-plus year-end AI Cloud target under contract.

Both announcements therefore extend the sector’s movement from pure Bitcoin mining toward long-term AI infrastructure contracts. Hut 8 now reports $26.6 billion in base-term contract value across its AI portfolio, while IREN continues expanding its customer base and planned computing capacity across several regions.