Buy this crypto stock for a double, Roth says

Roth Capital Markets analyst Darren Aftahi said in a January 14 earnings preview that HIVE Digital Technologies (HIVE Digital Technologies Stock Quote, Chart, News, Analysts, Financials NASDAQ:HIVE) is expanding its AI Cloud platform into Paraguay through a joint venture with a major local telecom provider, marking the company’s first move into the Latin American AI market and adding optionality to its 2026 growth outlook.

Aftahi maintained his “Buy” rating on HIVE with a 12-month price target of $8.00. The stock closed at $3.54 on January 13.

HIVE said the Paraguay initiative will be structured similarly to its Canadian telecom partnership model, with the company supplying GPUs and cloud services while hosting them in a third-party Tier 3 data centre. Power and data centre infrastructure will not be owned by HIVE. While the initial deployment is expected to be relatively small, Aftahi said it is incremental to the company’s existing AI/HPC plans in Canada and Sweden and aligns with management’s goal of exceeding 6,000 GPUs by year-end 2026, which the company has framed as roughly $120-million in annual recurring revenue.

Initial deployment is expected in calendar Q1 2026, with the ability to scale over time depending on customer demand and capital availability. Aftahi said the Paraguay expansion complements, rather than replaces, HIVE’s existing Bitcoin mining operations in the country, where the company controls approximately 400 megawatts of power, including 300 megawatts currently operating.

Roth views South America as an increasingly attractive region for AI and high-performance computing, citing hydro-powered energy availability and rising investment interest. Aftahi pointed to industry estimates indicating more than $60-billion of disclosed capital expenditure and financing tied to AI and data centre development across the region, particularly in Brazil, while also noting reported interest in large-scale compute projects in Argentina and Chile. In that context, he said HIVE’s established power footprint in Paraguay provides longer-term optionality beyond its current AI deployments.

On the crypto side, Aftahi updated his model following preliminary fiscal Q3 2025 results, which showed HIVE mined approximately 885 bitcoin, up 24% quarter over quarter, with an average hash rate of 23.3 exahash per second online in December. Higher uptime earlier in the quarter drove production above expectations despite an in-line exit hash rate, leading Roth to forecast self-mining revenue of about $88.9-million, roughly 24% above its prior estimate. Forward adjustments largely reflect higher Bitcoin network difficulty, offset by the improved production base.

Aftahi said HIVE should generate $140.3-million in Adjusted EBITDA on revenue of $314.8-million in fiscal 2026, compared with prior estimates of $120.6-million and $293.4-million, respectively. He expects those figures to improve to $144.8-million in Adjusted EBITDA on revenue of $419.0-million in fiscal 2027, versus prior estimates of $141.5-million and $414.5-million.

Roth said successful execution on GPU deployments, signed leases, and financing in both existing and new regions could help further reposition HIVE as an AI infrastructure play relative to a pure Bitcoin mining story heading into 2026.

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