Wall Street broker Benchmark raised its price target on Hut 8 (HUT) to $165 from $85, nearly doubling the previous estimate. The move comes as the company’s Beacon Point AI data center campus starts to generate commercial revenue, marking a clear shift in Hut 8’s business model toward AI infrastructure development.
The new target suggests roughly 65% upside from Hut 8’s current trading price, which sits near $100. Analyst Mark Palmer maintained a buy rating on the stock. He argued that after a 30% decline over the past six weeks, the market has not fully acknowledged Hut 8’s execution speed, which he described as strong despite the price drop.
Why the price target doubled
Palmer wrote in a report that the revised target incorporates the expected contribution from the Beacon Point campus, which is the second and larger of Hut 8’s two commercialized hyperscale projects. He also pointed to the company’s evolution from a bitcoin miner into something closer to a power-first data center REIT, with an internal development engine.
Bitcoin miners have been expanding beyond their core business into AI and high-performance computing. Companies like Core Scientific, Hive Digital, and Bit Digital are repurposing their power and infrastructure assets to serve AI workloads. The logic is simple: long-term contracts with hyperscale customers offer steadier, higher-margin revenue than relying solely on bitcoin mining, which is increasingly volatile.
The deals behind the shift
Hut 8 has signed two 15-year triple-net take-or-pay leases covering 597 megawatts of IT capacity at its River Bend, Louisiana, and Beacon Point, Texas, campuses. According to Palmer, these agreements have a base-term lease value of $16.8 billion, which could climb to $42.8 billion if tenants choose to renew.
Palmer said the Beacon Point lease was the main reason for the higher valuation. He estimated that the first phase alone carries $9.8 billion in base-term contract value and about $655 million in average annual net operating income.
Financing and future growth
Hut 8 recently raised $4.25 billion of investment-grade project financing for Beacon Point, following $3.25 billion for River Bend. Palmer said this validates management’s approach of lowering capital costs by converting development assets into long-term contracted cash flows.
Beyond the current projects, Hut 8 has a development pipeline totaling more than 9 gigawatts across projects at various stages—exclusivity, development, construction, and management. That pipeline offers a long runway for future growth, according to the report.
The broader trend of miners moving into AI infrastructure appears to be gaining momentum. As bitcoin mining margins remain unpredictable, companies like Hut 8 are betting that AI-focused data centers will provide more reliable income streams. Whether the market fully agrees remains to be seen, but Benchmark’s revised target suggests confidence in Hut 8’s direction.
