MARA's expansion into AI data center business sent its stock price up 17% in after-hours trading.

Bitcoin mining company MARA Holdings announced a partnership with investment firm Starwood Capital Group to build large-scale data centers for AI and cloud computing customers on top of its existing mining farms in the United States. Following the announcement, the company's stock price rose approximately 17% in after-hours trading. Under the agreement, the two companies will convert some of their existing Bitcoin mining facilities into AI data centers, with Starwood Digital Ventures, a Starwood subsidiary, responsible for design, construction, and customer acquisition. The initial phase of the project is expected to provide approximately 1 gigawatt (GW) of computing power, with plans to expand to over 2.5 GW in the future, and the projects will be jointly funded and operated by both parties. This partnership marks a significant transformation for MARA's business. Due to the large-scale power access capabilities of mining farms, this type of infrastructure becomes increasingly valuable against the backdrop of rapidly growing demand for AI computing power. In recent years, under pressure from declining block rewards due to Bitcoin halvings, rising electricity costs, and intensified competition, many mining companies have begun to shift towards AI computing power infrastructure. However, MARA stated that Bitcoin will remain a core component of the company's long-term strategy. The company's management emphasized that despite short-term price uncertainties, their long-term confidence in the Bitcoin asset class remains unchanged. Financial reports show that the company's revenue in the fourth quarter was $202.3 million, a year-on-year decrease of about 6%, mainly due to a decrease of about 14% in the average mining price of Bitcoin.