MARA Holdings acquired a Texas site with power infrastructure for $600M, supporting 2GW AI and Bitcoin mining operations.
MARA Holdings shares rose Thursday following the announcement of a 2-gigawatt Texas data-center site, though the company has not yet identified a tenant or disclosed financial details of the venture.
Investors increasingly value power-generation capacity as critical to artificial intelligence infrastructure. High-performance computing depends heavily on securing reliable power supply, sometimes more than on identifying specific customers. TeraWulf Inc. underscored this dynamic this week, announcing a 20-year lease to Anthropic valued at approximately $19 billion.
MARA disclosed details of the transaction through an 8-K filing. The company's Volt Texas unit acquired substantially all membership interests in MAT 1177 LLC, which holds Texas land rights and a letter of intent with an electric utility for up to 2,000 megawatts of capacity. The deal structure uses milestone-based payments tied to regulatory approvals, land acquisition, power authorization, and execution of a third-party data-center lease—not an upfront cash payment.
The Matagorda County site spans more than 1,200 acres approximately 90 miles from Houston. MARA projected an initial 1 gigawatt capacity by October 2027, scaling to 2 gigawatts by April 2028. CEO Fred Thiel said in a statement that sites with "reliable, scalable power" will grow in value. Renato Pereira, CEO of HIF USA, called the venture an "economic anchor" for the region.
The broader cryptocurrency-mining sector delivered mixed results Thursday. Bitcoin rose 1.1% to $62,681. While Cipher and TeraWulf gained, IREN fell, suggesting investors selectively favored miners positioned for artificial intelligence infrastructure over pure cryptocurrency operations.
MARA's Texas project complements its pending $1.5 billion acquisition of Ohio-based Long Ridge Energy & Power, which includes assumed debt. The Long Ridge facility offers 505 megawatts of capacity, over 1,600 acres, and generates approximately $144 million in annualized adjusted earnings. CEO Thiel told Reuters in April that Long Ridge contains "all the key components" for an "ideal data center campus."
Financing remains unresolved. As of March 31, MARA held $513.7 million in cash and equivalents against $2.28 billion in long-term liabilities. The company reduced leverage earlier this year through bitcoin sales and note repurchases. The Texas filing, however, omitted a complete capital expenditure budget for developing the powered land into a functional campus.
Broader markets strengthened Thursday as chip stocks climbed alongside gains in the Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500. However, Michael Hewson, senior market analyst at iFOREX, cautioned that stretched valuations in artificial intelligence sectors combined with Middle East geopolitical risks create a "toxic combination"—a particular concern for MARA, now increasingly traded as an AI-infrastructure investment rather than purely as a cryptocurrency miner.
Project risks remain substantial. The filing emphasizes that site value depends on securing approvals, power authorization, and a third-party lease commitment. MARA cautioned that commercialization through either bitcoin mining or high-performance computing may not meet current expectations. Power delays, difficult lease negotiations, a cryptocurrency market decline, or equity-funded construction could reverse Thursday's gains more quickly than the project advances.