Host Digital secures $1.25bn AI data centre lease ahead of NYSE debut
Host Digital Infrastructure, a private AI and high-performance computing data centre operator, has announced a 15-year take-or-pay lease covering 43 MW of critical IT load at its energised facility in northeast Oklahoma. The lease is valued at approximately $1.25 billion over the base term, rising to around $3.2 billion if all renewal options are exercised across a total 30-year horizon. Delivery to the unnamed tenant is expected in the first half of 2027.
The deal arrives as Host Digital prepares for its public-market debut. Shareholders of Healthy Choice Wellness Corp. (NYSE American: HCWC), the shell vehicle through which Host Digital is merging, have approved all required proposals. The merger is expected to close in September, after which the combined entity intends to trade on NYSE American under the ticker HOST.
The deal
The lease counterparty is described only as one of the world's largest privately held cloud infrastructure companies, with payment obligations backstopped by a US-based, investment-grade global technology company. Neither party is named. The lease includes annual rent escalators and standard rent-abatement provisions for outages. Host Digital's chairman-designate, Shawn Matthews, framed the contract as the template for the company's growth: "Secure near-term, energised power; focus on right-sized sites; and contract with strong or credit-enhanced counterparties before deploying significant capital."
Chief executive Harmol Samra added that power-ready sites capable of meeting AI deployment timelines are increasingly scarce, a constraint the company says it intends to exploit by converting energised capacity into long-term contracted revenue before significant capital is committed.
Host Digital's stated development model targets sites in the 20 MW to 100 MW range, which positions it below the hyperscale campuses being assembled by Amazon, Microsoft and Google but above the small colocation tier. The Oklahoma facility is already energised, meaning grid connections and utility agreements are in place, a meaningful distinction in a market where new interconnection queues can add years to a project timeline.
Market context
The AI infrastructure build-out has made energised, well-connected land one of the most sought-after assets in technology. Power constraints are acute in established markets such as Northern Virginia and Dublin, and operators that control sites with spare capacity and utility agreements already in place command a structural premium. A number of specialist listed operators, including Applied Digital and IREN, have pursued similar landlord-model strategies, contracting capacity to AI and HPC tenants rather than operating compute themselves.
Investors should note several material risks. Contracted revenue is not the same as delivered revenue: the Oklahoma capacity is not expected online until 2027, the tenant and backstop guarantor remain unnamed, and the merger itself retains outstanding closing conditions. Rent-abatement provisions standard to data centre leases may reduce total receipts. The $3.2 billion headline figure depends on the full exercise of renewal options across three decades, a horizon that carries obvious uncertainty.
Disclosure note
The source release was published by Equity Insider, a paid-advertising vehicle operated by Market Equities Limited, which has received and expects to continue receiving fees from HCWC's marketing agency for visibility services. The release carries an explicit disclaimer that it constitutes paid promotion and does not represent independent research. Readers and editors should weigh all claims in that context; the factual lease terms, capacity figures, and merger status are sourced to HCWC's own filings and the company's official announcement.