New York, March 5, 2026, 09:55 EST
- Hut 8 shares jumped roughly 14% Wednesday as crypto-related stocks followed bitcoin’s strong surge.
- Clear Street bumped its price target for Hut 8 up to $70, citing 2026 delivery milestones linked to the company’s AI data center projects.
- American Bitcoin, which is majority-owned by Hut 8, plans to roll out 11,298 additional mining rigs at its Drumheller facility in Alberta.
Hut 8 Corp (HUT.O) surged roughly 14% Wednesday, finishing the session at $54.21. Shares have tracked crypto moves lately and have drawn new interest as the company looks past just bitcoin mining. Reuters
This is a critical development for Hut 8, which has been pushing to convert its energy-intensive properties into stable, contract-driven income streams from AI-focused data centers. Back in December, it inked a roughly $7 billion agreement to build out a 245-megawatt data center at its River Bend location in Louisiana. The trend has already attracted other players like CoreWeave and Applied Digital, with each chasing similar power-plus-real-estate strategies. Reuters
Bitcoin got a lift, hitting $74,000 on Wednesday—the first time it’s reached that mark since early February. Fueling the move: U.S. President Donald Trump threw his support behind a crypto regulation bill, Investopedia reported. Investopedia
Clear Street bumped its price target on Hut 8 up to $70 from $60, sticking with a Buy call. The firm highlighted 2026 execution targets at River Bend and noted more of Hut 8’s development pipeline shifting into contracted AI infrastructure. Analyst Brian Dobson put it bluntly: he’d “use recent volatility to build positions.” Investing.com
Hut 8 hasn’t stepped away from mining, either. Its majority-owned arm, American Bitcoin, picked up 11,298 ASIC miners for a Drumheller, Alberta facility, targeting a March rollout, Benzinga said. That haul brings in about 3.05 exahash per second of compute and operates at 13.5 joules per terahash—lower power consumption for the output. “Grow American-owned, professionally operated hashrate,” summed up Eric Trump, the co-founder and chief strategy officer. President Matt Prusak, meanwhile, highlighted their aim: “maximizing Bitcoin accumulation.” Benzinga
Hut 8 shut down the Drumheller facility back in March 2024, after energy prices spiked and persistent voltage problems on Alberta’s AESO grid cut into returns, according to TheEnergyMag. The site had already been offline. TheEnergyMag
Miami-headquartered Hut 8 claims to operate an energy infrastructure platform with roughly 1,020 megawatts of managed capacity, spread across 15 locations in both the U.S. and Canada, a Reuters company profile shows. Its business splits into power, digital infrastructure, and compute segments, with bitcoin mining handled through American Bitcoin. Reuters
Still, there’s no shortage of hurdles in the near term. Drumheller’s machines aren’t on site yet, let alone powered up. Miner margins can shrink fast if bitcoin swings or network difficulty and electricity prices shift. And when it comes to AI data centers, delays can crop up around permits, supply chains, or the specifics of locking in customer contracts.
Now investors want to see if Hut 8 actually gets those mining deployments up and running soon, and whether the company can shift its AI plans from press releases to real contracts—and break ground on construction.
