MARA Holdings shares surged 17% after the bitcoin mining firm on Thursday announced a partnership with Starwood Capital Group to build large data centers across its existing US sites.
The deal will convert select MARA locations, many of which were originally developed for Bitcoin mining, into facilities serving enterprise cloud and artificial intelligence customers.
Starwood, which manages more than $125 billion in assets, will lead design, construction and tenant sourcing through its data center arm, Starwood Digital Ventures. The partners expect to deliver about 1 gigawatt of computing capacity in the short term, with plans to scale beyond 2.5 gigawatts over time. The two companies will jointly finance and operate the projects.
The agreement marks an important turning point for MARA.
The company built its reputation as a bitcoin miner, but it controls sites with direct access to large power supplies. That access has become valuable as tech companies scramble to secure power for new AI data centers.
MARA’s move fits into the trend of a number of bitcoin miners repurposing their infrastructure to meet the growing demand for artificial intelligence. The pivot began after Bitcoin’s recent halving cut miners’ rewards in half. With rising power costs, falling bitcoin prices, and heightened competition for mining, miners’ profit margins have been squeezed, forcing most companies to diversify or completely pivot into hosting machines for AI businesses.
Most recently, another bitcoin miner, Bitfarms (BITF), said it is rebranding as Keel Infrastructure as part of its pivot from bitcoin mining to data center development for high-performance computing (HPC) and AI workloads.
But for MARA, it does not shed its identity as a bitcoin mining company. In fact, its CEO, Fred Thiel, said in a shareholder letter that “Bitcoin remains a core of MARA’s strategy.”
“While the timing of a recovery in bitcoin prices is difficult to predict, our long-term conviction in the asset class remains unchanged,” Thiel added.
MARA also reported fourth-quarter earnings, with revenue falling 6% to $202.3 million from $214.4 million in Q4 2024, citing a 14% drop in the average price of bitcoin mined during the quarter.
