MARA Shares Jump 15% Despite $1.7B Loss as Bitcoin Miner Bets Big on AI Data Centers

MARA Holdings shares jumped 17% after the Bitcoin miner said it will work with Starwood Capital Group to turn some of its US mining sites into large data centers for cloud and AI customers.

Starwood, which manages more than US$125 billion (AU$189 billion), will handle design, construction and tenant sourcing through Starwood Digital Ventures. The partners said they aim to deliver about 1 gigawatt of capacity in the near term and eventually scale beyond 2.5 gigawatts. 

The projects will be jointly financed and operated.

Related: Anchored in the Past: Why Investors Are Missing Crypto’s Biggest Opportunity

Still a Bitcoin Company?

Well, MARA said it is still. The company’s CEO, Fred Thiel, said BTC remains “a core pillar” of its strategy and added that the company’s long-term view on the cryptocurrency is unchanged even if the timing of a price recovery is uncertain.

The company also reported fourth-quarter revenue of US$202.3 million (AU$309.5 million), down 6% from US$214.4 million (AU$328 million), citing a 14% drop in the average price of bitcoin mined in the quarter.

But the shift is aimed at monetising MARA’s main advantage, like sites with access to large power supplies, given that power has become a bottleneck for new AI data centers, and miners with existing energy-connected infrastructure are increasingly repurposing it.

Unsurprisingly, the pivot is part of a wider move across the mining sector after the latest Bitcoin halving cut block rewards. With tougher mining economics, firms have been looking to hosting and high-performance computing for steadier revenue. For instance, Bitcoin miner Cango recently sold its US$305 million (AU$466 million) in BTC to fund a complete AI compute push.

Bitfarms recently said it is rebranding as Keel Infrastructure as it moves into HPC and AI-focused data center development. 

Read more: Solo Bitcoin Miner Turns $75 in Rented Hashrate Into $200,000 Block Reward