Hut 8 Lands $7B AI Lease with Fluidstack; Google to Backstop Payments
Hut 8 stock jumps 20% after securing a $7B AI hosting deal with Fluidstack and Anthropic, backed by a Google payment guarantee.
The Deal
Bitcoin miner Hut 8 (HUT) announced a definitive 15-year partnership with cloud platform Fluidstack today to develop a 245-megawatt AI data center in Louisiana, a deal valued at $7 billion over the base term. The agreement includes a critical credit enhancement: Google will provide a financial backstop for Fluidstack’s lease and operating obligations.
Markets reacted instantly. HUT shares surged 20% in pre-market trading to $46.78, adding roughly $800 million to the company’s market cap as volume spiked 4x above average.
The Receipt
According to the filing, the facility at Hut 8’s River Bend campus will host compute capacity for AI safety lab Anthropic. The lease structure is a “triple net” arrangement with a 3% annual escalator, generating an expected $454 million in annual net operating income (NOI) for Hut 8.
“[This deal] reflects the strength of Hut 8’s power-first, innovation-driven development model, backed by the world-class counterparties we are executing alongside.”
— Asher Genoot, CEO of Hut 8
Institutional Context
This transaction signals a maturing “infrastructure arbitrage” trade where Bitcoin miners pivot from volatile crypto-mining to fixed-income AI hosting. By securing a Google backstop, Hut 8 effectively leases its power capacity to an AA+ rated counterparty, de-risking the project significantly compared to traditional crypto mining.
The deal structure mirrors similar moves by competitors like CoreWeave and TeraWulf, but the direct involvement of Google and Anthropic validates the sector’s thesis: power, not chips, is the new bottleneck for AI scaling. The agreement grants Fluidstack a Right of First Offer (ROFO) to expand up to 1,000 MW, potentially pushing the total contract value to $17.7 billion if fully exercised.
