Hut 8’s AI expansion and ABTC stake form ‘hybrid story with room to run,’ implying 50% upside: Benchmark

Benchmark analysts reaffirmed a Buy rating on Hut 8 Corp. (ticker HUT) and raised their price target to $78, saying the company’s expanding energy- and data-center-infrastructure platform offers a "differentiated hybrid story with plenty of room to run."

Lead analyst Mark Palmer said Nasdaq-listed Hut 8 has evolved "from a bitcoin mining company into an energy-infrastructure platform" under CEO Asher Genoot, who has focused on developing low-cost power assets deployable to "whatever workloads generate the strongest returns." Currently, that means dedicating its 1.5-gigawatt development pipeline to the build-out of AI and high-performance-compute data centers.

Benchmark valued that power portfolio at about $6 million per megawatt, roughly 50 percent below comparable infrastructure valuations , implying further upside. The target also factors in the market value of Hut 8's 64% stake in American Bitcoin Corp. (ABTC) alongside its own 10,667 BTC treasury , worth over $1.2 billion at current prices.

Palmer said the spin-off of Hut 8's bitcoin-mining operations into ABTC has made the parent "a more natural fit for the project-finance market," enabling cheaper capital access while preserving exposure through its equity stake.

ABTC, which is majority-owned by Hut 8, recently vaulted into the top 25 public bitcoin treasuries after adding 1,414 BTC worth about $160 million to its reserves. The Nasdaq-listed miner now holds roughly 3,865 BTC in total, combining self-mined output with market purchases.

Hut 8's flagship River Bend site in Louisiana, a 300-megawatt campus adjacent to a nuclear plant, represents one of the most "compelling greenfield opportunities" in AI infrastructure, Benchmark wrote. The firm also highlighted the company’s Vega facility in Texas, which is already serving AI tenants seeking faster, lower-cost deployments.

The note comes as bitcoin miners increasingly diversify into AI computing . Benchmark said Hut 8's hybrid model of combining AI data-center development, hosting, and a sizable bitcoin position could position it ahead of peers still reliant solely on mining revenue.

Shares of HUT were trading for $51.85 at press time, up more than 4% on the day and near a 52-week high, according to The Block price data .