Hut 8 to fund Louisiana water system expansion tied to AI campus

Bitcoin miner Hut 8 committed $16 million to expand water capacity in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, as part of development plans for its River Bend AI data center campus.

According to a Tuesday announcement, the investment includes a new water well, about eight miles of water main and other system upgrades. Hut 8 said the assets will be transferred to the parish after completion, which is expected in the second half of 2026, at no cost to taxpayers.

Hut 8 said Phase 1 of the River Bend campus represents a multibillion-dollar capital investment and is expected to support about 1,000 construction workers at peak build-out and at least 75 permanent jobs once operational.

The company said the campus will use a closed-loop cooling system designed to reduce ongoing water demand and rely on water sources outside the residential aquifer.

The River Bend campus is part of Hut 8’s North American energy and digital infrastructure platform, which the company said is being developed in partnership with public- and private-sector stakeholders.

Hut 8 shares climb on the year amid AI infrastructure expansion

Despite posting back-to-back quarterly losses in late 2025 and early 2026, shares of Hut 8 have climbed around 93% year-to-date, according to data from Bitcoinminingstock.io, as investors increasingly focus on the company’s AI infrastructure and power leasing business.

In December 2025, Hut 8 signed a 15-year lease for 245 MW of AI data center capacity at the River Bend campus in a deal the company said is valued at $7 billion. Hut 8 said the agreement includes payments financially backed by Google.

The company followed that agreement in May with another 15-year lease tied to 352 MW of capacity at its Beacon Point campus in Texas in a deal it said is valued at $9.8 billion. Hut 8 added that the two campuses represent a combined $16.8 billion in contracted lease revenue tied to 597 MW of AI data center capacity.

Shares of publicly traded Bitcoin mining companies have broadly gained this year, with data showing all of the top 10 miners by market capitalization are up double digits year-to-date.

Source: Bitcoinminingstocks.io

The gains come even as mining profitability remains under pressure across the sector. Publicly traded miners sold more than 32,000 Bitcoin in the first quarter of 2026, while hashprice, a measure of miner revenue, has fallen to around $35 per petahash per second per day, near breakeven levels for some operators.