Hut 8 Corp. (Nasdaq: HUT) is ending Wednesday, December 17, 2025 in the spotlight after unveiling a landmark AI infrastructure package that reframes the company less as a crypto-cycle proxy and more as a power-first digital infrastructure story.
The stock’s regular-session rally cooled from earlier highs but still finished firmly higher — and the after-hours tape suggests traders are digesting the details ahead of the next session.
HUT stock: how it traded into the close — and after the bell
Regular session (Wednesday, Dec. 17):
- Close: $40.16, up about 9% on the day
- Intraday range: $36.72 to $46.34 (a wide swing that underscores how crowded and reactive this trade was today)
- Volume: ~22.65 million shares, far above typical activity for recent weeks
After-hours (as of 6:04 p.m. ET):
- After-hours price: $40.50, up 0.85% from the close on ~128K shares [1]
Extended-hours trading can reverse quickly on thin liquidity, but the initial read is straightforward: the market liked the headline, then shifted into “show me” mode on execution and financing details.
What sparked the move: Hut 8’s River Bend AI lease + Anthropic/Fluidstack partnership
The catalyst is Hut 8’s announcement of a 15-year AI data center lease at its River Bend campus in Louisiana, paired with a broader “build-out path” tied to Anthropic’s future compute needs and Fluidstack’s role operating the high-performance clusters. Reuters framed it as part of a wider trend: investors are re-rating crypto-era infrastructure owners with power and sites into AI hosting beneficiaries as demand for high-voltage capacity and data-center-ready real estate tightens. [2]
The headline deal terms investors focused on today
From Hut 8’s River Bend transaction materials and company disclosures, the market’s key takeaways were:
- Base lease: 15-year triple-net (NNN) structure (meaning many operating costs are passed through to the tenant) [3]
- Contracted capacity:245 MW of IT capacity supported by 330 MW utility capacity, with 1.35 PUE noted in the transaction overview [4]
- Economics:$7.0B base-term contract value, with three 5-year renewal options that lift total potential contract value to $17.7B if exercised [5]
- Rent growth:3.0% annual base rent escalator [6]
- Profit metric disclosed: expected cumulative NOI contribution of about $6.9B over the base term, translating to an expected $454M average annual NOI (company-defined, non-GAAP) [7]
- Backstop: the tenant obligations are backstopped by Google (a subsidiary of Alphabet) for the base-term lease [8]
- Financing approach: Hut 8 describes project-level leverage up to 85% loan-to-cost, with J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs expected to play lead roles in the project-level financing structure [9]
- Timeline: target initial delivery/commissioning noted as Q2 2027 [10]
- Build cost guidance:$9–11M per MW cited in the River Bend transaction overview [11]
That’s a lot of “infrastructure finance” language for a company many retail traders still mentally file under “bitcoin miner.” And that mismatch — old narrative vs. new — is exactly why today’s move had such intensity.
The bigger “AI build-out path”: up to 2,295 MW across tranches
In separate partnership materials, Hut 8 laid out a three-tranche pathway totaling 2,295 MW:
- Tranche 1: 245 MW at River Bend (with 330 MW utility capacity)
- Tranche 2: a Right of First Offer for up to 1,000 MW additional at River Bend, subject to power expansion
- Tranche 3: up to 1,050 MW across multiple U.S. sites, to be jointly diligenced/developed with Anthropic [12]
Reuters also underscored the scale angle, noting the collaboration could grow to ~2.3 gigawatts, and highlighting the role of Google’s backstop in illustrating how urgently major ecosystem players are trying to secure capacity for power-hungry AI workloads. [13]
Why Louisiana matters: power, politics, and “shovel-ready” credibility
The Entergy release adds a local-policy and grid-readiness layer that investors often look for when judging whether a mega-project is “real” or just a press-release concept:
- Entergy said the River Bend AI data center campus represents up to a $10B Phase I investment. [14]
- Hut 8 expects roughly 1,000 construction workers at peak Phase I, and at least 75 direct jobs once operational (with additional indirect jobs estimated by Louisiana Economic Development). [15]
- Entergy Louisiana is slated to provide an initial 330 MW of utility capacity to support 245 MW of critical IT load. [16]
- Operations are expected to commence in Q2 2027, consistent with Hut 8’s transaction timeline. [17]
For markets, this kind of specificity can reduce (not eliminate) skepticism about permitting, utility interconnects, and the “last mile” realities that often delay data center timelines.
Analyst and media reaction on Dec. 17: upgrades, targets, and a narrative shift
Today’s coverage converged on one theme: Hut 8 is trying to get paid like an AI infrastructure platform, not a volatile mining operator.
- Investors.com highlighted the Google backstop and noted that project financing involves major Wall Street names; it also pointed to price-target increases from multiple firms as analysts lean into the AI infrastructure re-rate story. [18]
- Investing.com reported BTIG reiterating a Buy rating with a $55 price target, while also noting other firms maintaining higher targets (and emphasizing the high-volatility nature of the trade). [19]
- Barron’s placed Hut 8 among the day’s notable movers and focused on the $7B, 15-year structure and the potential for additional capacity beyond the initial build. [20]
- Reuters provided the broader industry context: former crypto miners and related infrastructure owners are pivoting to AI, trying to monetize scarce power access and data-center-ready real estate amid surging demand for GPU-heavy deployments. [21]
What to watch before the market opens Thursday (Dec. 18, 2025)
If you’re tracking HUT stock into tomorrow’s open, the setup is less about “will AI be big?” and more about deal mechanics, timeline, and financing discipline.
1) Pre-market volatility and the “fade vs. follow-through” test
After-hours action was modestly higher at last check, but today’s intraday range shows the stock can swing violently. A key question into Thursday: does volume return in pre-market and confirm the move — or do early buyers take profits into liquidity? [22]
2) Financing details: leverage helps returns — but raises sensitivity
Hut 8 is pointing to up to 85% loan-to-cost project-level leverage for River Bend. That can be powerful for equity returns if the project executes cleanly — but it also raises sensitivity to:
- interest rates/credit spreads,
- covenant and completion requirements,
- and any delays that push out commissioning beyond the targeted 2027 window. [23]
3) Execution risk: 2027 is a long runway for a momentum stock
Even with construction underway, Q2 2027 is not “next quarter” — and traders often struggle to price long-dated infrastructure cash flows when sentiment shifts. Any new color on delivery milestones, capex phasing, or supply chain constraints can move the stock quickly. [24]
4) Counterparty structure: why Google’s backstop mattered so much today
The market is clearly assigning value to the Google backstop and the “blue-chip” framing. For Thursday, watch how investors debate the nuance:
- What exactly is covered (base term obligations and pass-through items are explicitly referenced)?
- How does that translate into perceived credit risk versus a typical data center tenant? [25]
5) Power expansion optionality: the upside is big — but not guaranteed
The bull case leans heavily on the expansion runway (ROFO for up to 1,000 MW at River Bend and additional optional capacity across U.S. sites). The bear case will focus on constraints: transmission, generation, interconnect timing, and local permitting — the unglamorous bottlenecks that decide whether “2,295 MW path” becomes real revenue. [26]
6) Crypto linkage still matters for sentiment — even as Hut 8 “re-brands”
Reuters notes Hut 8 was once a pure-play bitcoin miner and has spent the last year repositioning itself. Even so, crypto-market sentiment can still influence traders’ appetite for the broader “crypto-to-AI pivot” basket. Bitcoin was trading around $86K late Wednesday (volatile session), which can feed into risk-on/risk-off flows in adjacent names. [27]
7) “Forecast” reality check: targets are wide, and dispersion is a signal
Aggregated analyst targets remain widely dispersed, with some services showing a broad range between low and high targets (reflecting uncertainty on how to value the new model). Treat targets as sentiment indicators — not outcomes — and focus on what changes the probability distribution: financing, delivery progress, and signed expansion commitments. [28]
Bottom line for Hut 8 stock heading into Thursday’s session
Hut 8’s Dec. 17 announcement delivered exactly what the market rewards in the AI infrastructure era: credible counterparties, a long-dated contract structure, and a power-backed expansion narrative. The stock’s strong close — and modestly higher after-hours print — suggest investors are impressed, but tomorrow’s open will likely hinge on whether buyers view the day’s move as the start of a multi-week repricing or a one-day headline spike. [29]
References
1. www.marketwatch.com, 2. www.reuters.com, 3. cdn.sanity.io, 4. cdn.sanity.io, 5. cdn.sanity.io, 6. cdn.sanity.io, 7. cdn.sanity.io, 8. cdn.sanity.io, 9. cdn.sanity.io, 10. cdn.sanity.io, 11. cdn.sanity.io, 12. cdn.sanity.io, 13. www.reuters.com, 14. www.entergy.com, 15. www.entergy.com, 16. www.entergy.com, 17. www.entergy.com, 18. www.investors.com, 19. uk.investing.com, 20. www.barrons.com, 21. www.reuters.com, 22. www.marketwatch.com, 23. cdn.sanity.io, 24. cdn.sanity.io, 25. cdn.sanity.io, 26. cdn.sanity.io, 27. www.reuters.com, 28. www.marketbeat.com, 29. www.marketwatch.com
