Hut 8 (NASDAQ:HUT) reports third-quarter results early next month, and the quarter itself may not be the interesting part. Second-quarter revenue was $74.9 million, up from $41.3 million a year earlier. Almost all of it, $72.5 million, came from computing services rather than from power or data centers.
But the stock trades on something those results don’t show yet. The company has signed leases for 949 megawatts of AI data center capacity, worth about $26.6 billion over their base terms. The first building isn’t due to open until the second quarter of 2027, so the question is whether a company this size can deliver on time.
The contracts look strong, but the stock now depends on delivery more than on any quarterly number. Hut 8 builds data centers on sites with power available and leases them to AI tenants on take-or-pay terms. That means rent is owed whether or not the tenant uses the space. Investors who want more AI data center stocks can find Hut 8 in our recent list of 9 Best Bitcoin Stocks to Buy Now.
Repeat Tenants Back the Business
Revenue grew about 50.6% a year over the past five years, so fast growth isn’t new here. What is new is the customer. At Beacon Point, the first tenant returned within months for a second 352-megawatt lease, filling the campus’s full gigawatt of utility capacity.
That matters because the tenant has a high investment-grade rating, and all of Hut 8’s contracted capacity is leased to, or backstopped by, investment-grade companies. So the rent is backed by strong credit. If you’re interested in long-term data center plays, we recently compiled a report on 15 Best Data Center Stocks to Buy and Hold for the Next Decade.
Project Debt Stays Outside the Parent
The same strength shows up in how the buildings are paid for. The company closed $7.5 billion of investment-grade notes for the two campuses, and lenders can’t collect from the parent company. So a delayed building could hurt the equity, but it doesn’t put the whole balance sheet on the line.
Last month, Hut 8 also closed a $1.07 billion revolving credit facility at the parent level. It gives the company bank money to cover early costs without selling new shares, which matters because the leases pay only after the buildings open.
Bitcoin Still Moves the Bottom Line
The second-quarter net loss of $177.1 million included $138.6 million of mostly unrealized losses on digital assets. Those are paper losses tied to Bitcoin’s price, so reported results will keep swinging with crypto while the AI business is built.
The bigger risk is timing, because no AI campus is open yet and the company’s own releases list construction delays, supply chain issues and permitting hurdles among the risks. River Bend is targeted for its first data hall in the second quarter of 2027, and Beacon Point in the third quarter. A slip would push back rent the buildings are meant to earn. Strong leases limit the damage from a short delay but can’t remove it, which caps the view without changing it.
Investors Are Pricing Hut 8 on Contracts
Hut 8 isn’t priced on earnings. Its forward price-to-earnings ratio divides the share price by expected profit per share over the coming year, and it isn’t meaningful because the company is losing money. The typical stock in its sector trades at 21.01 times forward earnings, so investors are valuing Hut 8 on the contracts and buildings still to come.
Among hedge funds, 73 held the stock in the second quarter of 2026, up from 60 in the first quarter. That count comes from quarterly filings, so it lags, but it shows more professional money moving toward the contract story. At the same time, 16.87% of shares outstanding are sold short, meaning traders borrowed shares and sold them, hoping to repurchase them later at a lower price.
Both camps are betting on the same fact, which is whether River Bend and Beacon Point arrive on time. If you own the shares, you have a view on construction schedules more than on this year’s profit. For investors who follow short interest in data center stocks, our list of 7 Underperforming Data Center Stocks to Buy According to Short Sellers is worth a look.
The leases, the lenders and a repeat tenant are all in place, but no building is running yet. That makes the report due early next month a check on construction progress more than on profit. The thing to watch is River Bend’s first data hall, which still needs to look on track for the second quarter of 2027 for the contract story to hold.
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This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
