Bitcoin Miner MARA jumps 17% after striking a deal with Starwood to build AI data centers

MARA Holdings shares increased by 17% after the bitcoin mining firm announced a partnership with Starwood Capital Group to develop large data centers across its existing U.S. facilities. The agreement involves converting select MARA locations, originally for Bitcoin mining, to serve enterprise cloud and artificial intelligence customers. Starwood Digital Ventures will lead the design, construction, and tenant sourcing, with the partners aiming to deliver about 1 gigawatt of computing capacity initially, scaling beyond 2.5 gigawatts. This move capitalizes on MARA's access to large power supplies, which is crucial for new AI data centers, fitting a broader industry trend of miners repurposing infrastructure due to squeezed profit margins from factors like the Bitcoin halving. Despite this pivot, MARA CEO Fred Thiel affirmed that "Bitcoin remains a core pillar of MARA’s strategy."

(Source：CoinDesk)