Hut 8 wins Poolin Texas data center auction with $140 million bid

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Hut 8 wins Poolin Texas auction

Highlights

Hut 8 won the auction for Poolin's Pyote and Tarbush Texas data centers with a $140 million bid, pending court approval at a Sept. 29 hearing.
Hut 8's $140 million bid significantly exceeded the $52 million stalking-horse offers from Thor CALAP and the $100.5 million backup bid by Pecos Industrial Development for Tarbush.
The acquisition boosts Hut 8's data center expansion beyond bitcoin mining, with its AI infrastructure pipeline at 8.7 GW and $26.6 billion in contracted AI capacity value.

Sale process and competing bids

As reported by The Block, a Wednesday court filing shows Hut 8 as the winning bidder for Poolin's Pyote and Tarbush data center sites with a $140 million offer made up of cash and other consideration. The transaction cannot close until the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey approves the sale, and a hearing is scheduled for Sept. 29.

Hut 8's bid is well above the combined $52 million in stalking-horse offers submitted by Thor CALAP, which bid $15 million for the Pyote campus and $37 million for Tarbush. Backup bids were also submitted by DigiPower X, which offered $36.5 million for Pyote, and Pecos Industrial Development, acting as a designee of AI infrastructure firm Fluidstack, which put forward a $100.5 million offer for Tarbush.

Poolin and two U.S. affiliates filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July after winding down mining and hosting operations at the Texas sites. Court filings valued the company's obligations at about $173.1 million, including roughly $163.7 million in unsecured claims tied to Poolin Wallet users after withdrawals were frozen in 2022.

AI infrastructure expansion strategy

The proposed acquisition adds to Hut 8's expanding data center footprint as the company pushes further beyond bitcoin mining and into AI infrastructure. In its August second-quarter earnings report, Hut 8 said its development pipeline reached about 8.7 gigawatts, up around 300 megawatts from the prior quarter.

The company also said it has secured 949 MW of contracted AI infrastructure capacity, representing an estimated $26.6 billion in expected contract value across its River Bend and Beacon Point campuses. Earlier this month, Hut 8 said Beacon Point received a conditional Base Load classification through ERCOT's Batch Zero process, allowing it to retain the requested power amount while the grid operator completes its review.

Chief Executive Officer Asher Genoot signaled continued momentum in the market during the company's second-quarter earnings call. "Demand is robust," Genoot said. "Everyone wants capacity."

In our earlier article on Microsoft’s planned $10+ billion Gulf investment, we covered how the company aims to expand cloud and AI infrastructure across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait by 2030, alongside a major push to improve regional connectivity and digital resilience. We also noted Microsoft’s deepening ties with Abu Dhabi-based G42 and the key constraints facing this buildout, including access to advanced chips and heightened security risks for data center infrastructure.

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