Shares of MARA Holdings climbed 17% after the company announced a new partnership with private investment firm Starwood Capital Group to transform portions of its U.S. footprint into large-scale data centers geared toward artificial intelligence and cloud computing clients.
The agreement calls for repurposing several MARA sites — originally developed for bitcoin mining — into facilities capable of supporting enterprise AI workloads. Starwood, which manages more than $125 billion in assets, will oversee development through its data center platform, Starwood Digital Ventures, handling design, construction and tenant sourcing. The partners expect to bring roughly 1 gigawatt of computing capacity online initially, with longer-term plans to expand beyond 2.5 gigawatts. Both firms will jointly fund and operate the projects.
The initiative signals a notable evolution in MARA’s strategy. While the company established itself as one of the largest publicly traded bitcoin miners, it also accumulated energy-rich sites with substantial power access — a key advantage as technology companies scramble to secure electricity for AI infrastructure.
MARA’s move reflects a broader shift among mining firms following Bitcoin’s most recent halving, which reduced block rewards by half. Combined with elevated power costs, softer bitcoin prices and heightened competition, the halving has compressed margins across the sector, prompting many miners to diversify into AI hosting and high-performance computing.
Earlier this month, Bitfarms revealed plans to rebrand as Keel Infrastructure as part of its transition away from pure bitcoin mining toward AI-focused data center development.
Despite expanding into AI infrastructure, MARA is maintaining its commitment to bitcoin. CEO Fred Thiel emphasized in a shareholder letter that the cryptocurrency remains central to the company’s long-term outlook.
“Bitcoin remains a core pillar of MARA’s strategy,” Thiel wrote, noting that while the timing of a price rebound is uncertain, the firm’s long-term conviction in the asset remains unchanged.
In its fourth-quarter earnings report, MARA posted revenue of $202.3 million, down 6% from $214.4 million a year earlier. The decline was attributed to a 14% drop in the average price of bitcoin mined during the quarter.
