- Bitcoin mining firm Hut 8 entered into a $7 billion lease agreement with Fluidstack to expand its data center in Louisiana.
- The miner expects the River Bend campus to generate $454 million in annual net operating income.
Hut 8 announced on Wednesday that it has signed a $7 billion lease agreement with Fluidstack. The move allows the Bitcoin mining company to tap into the AI infrastructure provider’s 245-megawatt capacity at its River Bend data center campus in Louisiana, USA. Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet, will serve as the parties’ financial backstop to ensure that the lessee meets its obligations.
Key Details of the Hut 8 Expansion
The lease agreement covers a 15-year term, which includes a 3% annual base rent escalator. Meanwhile, the contract’s 5-year renewal options could increase its value to around $17.7 billion.
The deal also gives Fluidstack the Right of First Offer (ROFO). This enables the company to provide an additional 1,000 MW capacity to Hut 8 upon completion of the River Bend campus’s expansion.
Fluidstack expects to complete the first phase of the data center in the second quarter of 2027. It anticipates the rest of the campus to go online within the same year.
Hut 8 already manages 1,020 MW of energy capacity spread across 19 sites in the US and Canada. The Louisiana expansion will offer 330 MW of energy capacity under construction and 1,230 MW under development.
Income and Execution Model
Hut 8 estimates that the River Bend Bitcoin mining and AI data center will generate approximately $6.9 billion in cumulative net operating income (NOI) over the base term. This translates to an annual NOI of $454 million.
The company revealed that it will implement an “institutional-grade execution model” to de-risk the project. Its partners in this area include JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Entergy, Vertiv, and Jacobs.
Official Statements of the Contracting Parties
Asher Genoot, CEO of Hut 8, highlighted that their execution model at the River Bend facility enhances the project’s delivery certainty and positioning. Additionally, he believes it presents a blueprint for a new standard on how next-generation AI infrastructure is designed and developed.
Jeff Landry, Governor of Louisiana, is confident that the Hut 8 expansion in his state will create thousands of jobs. Moreover, he emphasized that the project will inject billions of dollars of investment into his jurisdiction. For him, it positions Louisiana at the forefront of an industry that will define the market in the coming decades.
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