Bitcoin miner MARA Holdings(MARA.US) surges after hours! Teams up with private equity firm Sheraton to venture into AI infrastructure

Crypto Finance APP has learned that MARA Holdings (MARA.US) is collaborating with Starwood Capital Group, a private equity firm under Barry Sternlicht, to convert some of this Bitcoin miner’s existing sites into infrastructure capable of supporting artificial intelligence (AI) applications and other cloud services. Boosted by this news, as of press time, MARA rose nearly 15% in after-hours trading on Thursday.

As the data center development platform for the private equity investment firm, Starwood Digital Ventures will be responsible for design, tenant recruitment, construction, and facility operations, while MARA will provide some of the sites. The cryptocurrency mining company stated on Thursday that both parties expect to immediately deliver approximately 1 gigawatt of capacity, with the potential to expand to 2.5 gigawatts. Financial terms were not disclosed. According to MARA’s presentation materials, both parties will implement joint ownership of all related projects, prioritizing sites that can access more cost-effective energy and have scalable interconnection capabilities.

Sternlicht said in a Thursday interview, “We evaluated many miners to see which are operational. The key is how quickly we can get these projects running and their geographic locations. We are very excited about this joint venture with MARA. Our brand is well-known and trusted in both debt and equity markets, which will help realize MARA’s ambitions.” MARA CEO Fred Thiel stated that the miner will have the right to retain up to 50% ownership in the joint venture, with both parties sharing development costs and profits.

Alongside the announcement of the partnership with Starwood, MARA reported a $1.7 billion loss in the fourth quarter, including an unrealized loss of $15 billion due to a write-down of its Bitcoin holdings. The company is the second-largest institutional holder of the cryptocurrency at the corporate level, after Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy (MSTR.US). Additionally, MARA’s revenue in the fourth quarter declined 6% year-over-year to $202 million.

Brian Dobson, Managing Director at Clear Street, said, “The MARA-Starwood deal reinforces the idea that Bitcoin miners can transform into high-performance computing (HPC) data centers. Their ability to acquire power and their track record of monetizing megawatts give investors confidence.”

Bitcoin miners are gradually becoming a significant group among major AI data center providers because some can access cheap, readily available energy and have sites that can be converted into higher-grade data centers for AI applications, shortening the time needed to build from scratch.

Although MARA announced plans last year to develop infrastructure for AI inference services, stock market investors favor Bitcoin miners fully committed to AI transformation. Shares of IREN (IREN.US), TeraWulf (WULF.US), and Cipher Digital (CIFR.US) have surged significantly over the past year. These companies’ market caps have surpassed MARA, despite MARA’s mining capacity for Bitcoin nearly exceeding that of all its U.S.-listed peers.

Other major miners are also facing increasing pressure from shareholders to accelerate their transition into AI data center infrastructure providers. Aggressive investors, including Starwood, hold large stakes in Riot Platforms (RIOT.US) and are pushing the miner to make more efforts in developing its AI projects. Riot owns one of the largest mining farms in Texas and has access to abundant energy. The sharp decline in digital assets has also accelerated industry transformation, with more miners liquidating their Bitcoin holdings and using some proceeds to cover expenses or fund AI expansion.