The AI boom has sparked a modern-day gold rush for computing power. But inside Hut 8, one of the companies helping build the infrastructure behind that demand, executives are focused on a different scarce resource: people.
As the company races to expand its AI data center footprint, it’s also expanding its Miami presence, hiring aggressively and moving into a new Brickell office roughly five times larger than its current space.
“We are very much bullish on Miami,” Matthew Saxon, Chief People Officer at Hut 8, told Refresh Miami.
The move reflects a broader commitment to South Florida from the digital infrastructure company, which has established Miami as its headquarters and plans to continue growing its local workforce.
Led by CEO Asher Genoot, Hut 8 currently employs roughly 280 people globally and expects to surpass 300 employees in the coming weeks. Approximately 120 employees are based in Miami, with dozens of open roles spanning engineering, development, finance, operations, real estate, and people functions.
“We are bursting at the seams because we’ve been doing a bunch of hiring,” Saxon said.
That hiring push comes at a pivotal moment for the company. Hut 8 recently announced major partnerships to help build AI infrastructure for large hyperscale customers, positioning itself at the center of the rapidly growing demand for computing capacity.
For Saxon, however, the company’s success ultimately comes down to talent. “Hiring is so centric to us,” he said. “We need to make sure that every heartbeat in our organization is a superstar.”
The company looks for candidates who combine technical skills with what Saxon calls “first-principles thinking,” referring to the ability to challenge assumptions and approach problems from first principles.
“We look for people that can look at a problem or look at a situation and say, is there a better way to do this,” he said.
Miami is becoming an increasingly important piece of that strategy. Saxon believes the city has developed into a growing hub for finance and technology talent, while still offering the culture and energy needed to attract ambitious professionals.
“We really want Miami to be a talent hub for us, also for the country,” he said.
Part of that effort starts early. Hut 8 – founded in 2017 – actively recruits interns and recent graduates, believing young professionals can gain meaningful responsibility faster than they might at larger, more traditional organizations.
“We love people who are highly motivated, hungry, and want to do meaningful work,” Saxon said. Most recently, Saxon was chief people officer at Zoom and vice president of people operations at Meta, among a variety of other executive roles at major enterprises.
The company is also firmly committed to in-person work. “We do believe that magic happens when people are in the office co-located together and learn from each other,” Saxon asserted.
Maintaining culture while growing rapidly is one of the challenges Saxon spends much of his time thinking about. He compared the work to building a foundation. “I’ve had to inherit other people’s concrete that they’ve made before me,” he said. “This is a sort of company role where you get to lay the concrete.”
It’s a fitting analogy for a company helping build the infrastructure behind one of technology’s biggest shifts.
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