MARA Shares Jump 14% on Plans for 2 GW Texas AI and Bitcoin Mining Campus

Shares of MARA Holdings climbed roughly 14% in early trading Thursday after the company announced plans to acquire a 1,200-acre powered land site in Texas, aimed at building out capacity for both high-performance computing and bitcoin mining.

Deal Structured Around Development Milestones

Rather than an upfront purchase, MARA’s deal with seller HIF is structured as up to $600 million in milestone-based payments. According to an SEC filing, payments will be released as the project clears steps including regulatory approvals, land acquisition, power access authorization and eventually a signed data center tenant. HIF will keep a minority ownership stake once MARA secures a high-performance computing tenant.

Site Could Reach 2 Gigawatts by 2028

The land sits southwest of Houston in Matagorda County. MARA expects the site to hit 1 gigawatt of grid capacity by October 2027, with capacity potentially expanding to 2 gigawatts by the second quarter of 2028, depending on approvals from Texas grid operator ERCOT. The company said the campus has already drawn interest from potential HPC tenants.

Part of Broader Starwood Partnership

The project will be developed through MARA’s existing partnership with Starwood Digital Ventures, established in February to build hyperscale and AI data centers across MARA’s site portfolio. Starwood handles design, construction and tenant sourcing, while MARA supplies the powered land and energy infrastructure. If the Texas campus reaches full energization, it would push MARA’s total power portfolio to about 4.8 gigawatts and could support thousands of permanent jobs. “We believe sites with access to reliable, scalable power will become increasingly valuable,” said MARA Chairman and CEO Fred Thiel.