MARA pushes Matagorda site as part of AI expansion

MARA said it hopes to sign at least two leases before the end of the year.

The update comes as bitcoin mining companies increasingly look to data centers and artificial intelligence for growth while their traditional business remains closely tied to volatile cryptocurrency prices.

MARA shares fell about 4% Thursday morning alongside other major bitcoin miners, while bitcoin-linked and broader technology funds posted smaller declines. Cipher Mining fell about 6% and Riot Platforms about 4% during the same session.

The sharper declines illustrate how mining stocks can amplify relatively modest movements in bitcoin and technology markets because their earnings depend heavily on cryptocurrency prices, electricity costs and investor appetite for higher-risk assets.

That volatility is one reason companies including MARA, Riot and Cipher have begun expanding into high-performance computing and AI data centers, where long-term leases can provide revenue that is less directly tied to daily cryptocurrency prices. 

MARA’s Matagorda County project fits squarely into that strategy. 

The company previously announced an agreement with HIF USA to acquire rights to more than 1,200 acres in Matagorda County for as much as $600 million, with payments tied to development milestones.

 The site could eventually provide up to 2 gigawatts of power capacity, subject to regulatory and interconnection approvals. 

MARA has said about 1 gigawatt could become available by October 2027, with the site potentially reaching 2 gigawatts by April 2028. 

The property had previously been planned for HIF’s multibillion-dollar e-fuels development. HIF retains a minority interest in the site and has said it continues evaluating renewable-fuels opportunities in Matagorda County.

For MARA, however, the land is increasingly being marketed as part of a broader digital infrastructure network built around access to large amounts of electricity.

The company said its pending transactions could increase its total power portfolio to about 4.8 gigawatts. 

That puts Matagorda County into a much larger competition for power-intensive data center development as artificial intelligence companies seek sites capable of supporting increasingly large computing loads.

MARA is not alone.

Riot Platforms has moved aggressively into data center leasing, including a 20-year, 191-megawatt agreement tied to artificial intelligence computing. Cipher Mining has also expanded into high-performance computing and recently brought its Black Pearl data center online. 

The moves reflect a changing business model across the mining industry. Companies that once depended almost entirely on bitcoin production are increasingly trying to monetize the same assets — land, substations, transmission access and large power agreements — for AI and other computing uses.

MARA still remains heavily exposed to bitcoin. 

During the second quarter, the company reported an energized mining rate of 70.3 exahashes per second and produced 2,422 bitcoin. It ended the period holding 35,577 bitcoin.

The company said a 28% decline in bitcoin’s average price during the quarter contributed to a largely non-cash net loss.

MARA has described the first half of 2026 as a period of building out its land and power portfolio. The second half, management said, will focus on signing customers, bringing projects online and generating more value from the power capacity it controls.

For Matagorda County, that means the project’s next major milestone may not be another land or power announcement, but the signing of an actual data center tenant.

If MARA succeeds in securing those customers, the former HIF site could become one of the company’s largest efforts to transform itself from a bitcoin miner into a broader digital infrastructure operator.