Hut 8 Jumps 10% on $9.8B AI Data Center Lease; MARA, Riot Platforms Rally

David Moadel Mon, July 20, 2026 at 7:45 AM PDT | 4 min read

Quick Read

• Hut 8's $9.8B, 15-year AI lease sent HUT stock surging 10%, with MARA stock up 8% and RIOT stock rising 4%, even as Bitcoin traded sideways.
• The WGMI Bitcoin-miner ETF jumped 8% alongside the cohort; Riot Platforms' $636 million AMD lease at Rockdale demonstrates the miner-to-AI pivot is generating real revenue.
• Hut 8's total contracted portfolio reached $26.6B, with expected annual NOI above $1.75 billion; analysts have set price targets as high as $226.
• Act now: The analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and Marathon Digital did not make the cut. Grab the names FREE today.

Shares of Hut 8 (NASDAQ:HUT) surged in Monday morning trading, with the stock up 10% to $100.58 after the energy infrastructure operator announced a second hyperscale AI data center lease that fully commercializes its flagship Texas campus. The move extends a volatile stretch for the name, which had fallen 23% over the past month heading into the announcement.

The rally dragged peer miners higher in sympathy. Marathon Digital (NASDAQ:MARA) shares rose 8% to $11.57, and Riot Platforms (NASDAQ:RIOT) shares traded 4% higher at $19.03. The CoinShares Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (NASDAQ:WGMI) joined the move, with the ETF up 8% to $51.58.

Notably, the sector rallied while Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC) traded slightly lower over the past 24 hours at $64,317. That divergence signals the move is idiosyncratic to the AI infrastructure theme rather than a crypto beta trade.

Beacon Point Deal Fully Commercializes Texas Campus

Hut 8 signed a second 15-year, $9.8 billion lease that fully commercializes its 1-gigawatt Beacon Point AI data center campus in Nueces County, Texas. The existing high-investment-grade tenant doubled its contracted footprint to 704 MW. The campus base-term contract value now stands at $19.6 billion, rising to as much as $50.2 billion if all renewal options are exercised.

The total contracted portfolio value across Beacon Point and River Bend now reaches $26.6 billion, with expected average annual net operating income above $1.75 billion. The Phase 2 data hall spans 352 MW and is designed to NVIDIA's (NASDAQ:NVDA) DSX reference architecture, tying Hut 8 directly to the NVIDIA AI factory buildout that CEO Jensen Huang has called "the largest infrastructure expansion in human history."

Campus energization is on track for Q1 2027, with first Phase 2 delivery expected in Q2 2028. Beacon Point was originally developed on a speed-to-power basis for affiliated miner American Bitcoin before being converted to AI leases.

KBW Reiterates Outperform

Keefe, Bruyette & Woods (KBW) maintained an Outperform rating with a $138 price target on Hut 8 shares following the announcement. That target sits above the current print and reinforces the analyst community's view that Hut 8's shift toward contracted, investment-grade cash flow is worth a premium to the mining peer set.

The setup echoes prior notes. Benchmark's Mark Palmer had already lifted his Hut 8 price target to $165 from $85, and Lucid Capital Markets initiated the stock at Buy with a $226 price target.

Hut 8's Peers Ride the Theme

This article originally appeared on 24/7 Wall St.