Quarterly revenue fell to $71 million, below analyst expectations, but sentiment improved after Hut 8 announced a $9.8 billion, 15-year AI infrastructure deal involving 352 megawatts of leased power capacity.
Hut 8 Defies Earnings Loss
Shares of Hut 8 surged by more than 35% on Wednesday despite the company reporting a net loss of over $253 million for the first quarter of 2026. Investors appeared to focus more on the firm’s long-term expansion plans and exposure to artificial intelligence infrastructure rather than the quarterly loss itself.
HUT’s price over the past week (Source: CoinCodex)
According to the company’s earnings report, the loss was largely tied to a decline in the market value of its Bitcoin holdings. Bitcoin experienced a lot of volatility over the period, and dropped from highs above $126,000 in October to lows near $60,000 in February. This decline negatively impacted the value of Hut 8’s reserves and weighed heavily on its financial results.
The company generated more than $71 million in revenue during the quarter, which was a decline of around 22% compared to the previous quarter’s $88.4 million. The figure also came in below analyst expectations, as FactSet forecasts estimated quarterly revenue closer to $78.5 million.
Despite the weaker earnings performance, market sentiment improved after Hut 8 announced a major long-term infrastructure agreement tied to the AI sector. The company revealed a $9.8 billion deal that will see it lease 352 megawatts of power capacity to a third-party artificial intelligence company over a 15-year period. Hut 8 said its ASIC compute operations, AI cloud services, and traditional cloud infrastructure collectively generated roughly $66 million in revenue during the quarter.
Press release from Hut 8
The move reflects a broader trend among publicly traded Bitcoin mining companies, many of which are increasingly diversifying into AI and high-performance computing infrastructure as mining profitability becomes more difficult. Rising operational costs, tighter margins, and increased competition pushed several firms to seek alternative revenue streams outside of traditional crypto mining.
Crypto analyst Ran Neuner said that AI infrastructure and Bitcoin mining are now directly competing for electricity resources. According to Neuner, AI companies are currently willing to pay a lot more for power than Bitcoin miners. He estimated that miners can generate between $57 and $129 per megawatt securing the Bitcoin network, while AI infrastructure providers may generate between $200 and $500 per megawatt.
This imbalance could eventually reshape the mining industry. As more mining firms redirect energy resources toward AI hosting, less computing power may be dedicated to securing the Bitcoin blockchain. Some analysts believe this trend could weaken network security if mining participation declines over time.
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