MARA Holdings shares rose 17% after the bitcoin mining company on Thursday announced a partnership with Starwood Capital Group to build large data centers at its existing sites in the United States.
The deal will convert select MARA locations, many of which were originally developed for Bitcoin mining, into facilities serving enterprise AI and cloud clients.
Starwood, which manages more than $125 billion in assets, will lead the design, construction and tenant search through its data center division, Starwood Digital Ventures. The partners expect to deliver about 1 gigawatt of computing capacity in the near 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 turn for MARA.
The company gained a reputation as a bitcoin miner, but controls sites with direct access to large energy supplies. That access has become valuable as technology companies scramble to secure power for new AI data centers.
MARA’s move fits the trend of a large number of bitcoin miners repurposing their infrastructure to meet the growing demand for AI computing. The turnaround began after the recent Bitcoin halving halved miner rewards. With energy costs rising, the price of bitcoin falling, and mining competition intensifying, miners’ profit margins have shrunk, forcing most companies to diversify or pivot entirely toward hosting machines for AI companies.
More recently, another bitcoin miner, Bitfarms (BITF), said it will change its name to Keel Infrastructure as part of its pivot from bitcoin mining to developing data centers for high-performance computing (HPC) and AI workloads.
However, MARA is not abandoning its identity as a bitcoin mining company. In fact, its CEO, Fred Thiel, said in a letter to shareholders that “Bitcoin remains a central pillar of MARA’s strategy.”
“While it is difficult to predict the timing of a bitcoin price recovery, 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% decline in the average price of bitcoin mined during the quarter.
