MARA Holdings, a cryptocurrency mining company, has announced a major strategic alliance with Starwood Capital, the investment firm led by Barry Sternlicht. The collaboration aims to transform MARA’s existing mining sites into state-of-the-art data center infrastructures suitable for artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing. News of the partnership sent MARA’s shares soaring by nearly 17 percent in after-hours trading, highlighting investor enthusiasm for the company’s new direction.
Investment Focus and Infrastructure Goals
According to the agreement, the two companies will jointly launch and operate new data center projects, making use of MARA’s current facilities at various locations. Starwood Capital’s digital infrastructure subsidiary, Starwood Digital Ventures, will take on the design, construction, and operational management of these upcoming data centers. MARA, in turn, brings its advantage of low-cost energy access to the table. The initial goal is to reach one gigawatt of computing capacity, with plans to exceed 2.5 gigawatts in the future. The facilities will also be able to flexibly switch between mining and AI computing workloads, depending on market conditions. MARA has the option to own up to 50 percent of the joint venture. While both sides will share development expenses and revenue, the financial specifics have not been disclosed.
Starwood Capital currently manages assets valued at over $125 billion. Starwood Digital Ventures, Starwood’s data center branch, boasts a team of 94 experts with experience overseeing more than 10 gigawatts of capacity.
Fred Thiel commented that the joint venture “will convert power certainty into capacity certainty,” emphasizing that the collaboration offers a more capital-efficient approach to building infrastructure.
Miners Accelerate Pivot to AI Infrastructure
The announcement coincided with MARA Holdings’ release of its fourth-quarter financial results. The company reported a net loss of $1.7 billion, primarily due to unrecognized impairments in the value of its Bitcoin holdings. Nevertheless, quarterly revenue reached $202 million—a 6 percent drop compared to the same period last year. Among institutional Bitcoin holders, MARA trails only MicroStrategy, the firm led by Michael Saylor.
Across the mining sector, firms once focused solely on Bitcoin production are retooling their energy infrastructure and physical assets to support AI-driven workloads. This shift is largely because adapting existing facilities can yield results far faster than building new ones from scratch. Recently, companies such as IREN, TeraWulf, and Cipher Mining—although producing less mining power than MARA—have surpassed MARA’s market capitalization by capitalizing on this trend. Meanwhile, activist investor Starboard Value has acquired a substantial stake in Riot Platforms and is pressing the company to expedite its data center conversion plans in Texas.
Throughout this transition, MARA has enlisted JLL as its strategic advisor and Paul Weiss to provide legal counsel for the evolving partnership.
