Shares of Mara Holdings (MARA +8.22%) rose on Friday after the digital energy technology provider struck a game-changing partnership with Starwood Capital Group.
By the close of trading, Mara's stock price was up 5.8% after rising as much as 16.4% earlier in the day.
Image source: Getty Images.
A potentially lucrative shift to AI
Mara will work with Starwood Digital Ventures (SDV) to convert several of its cryptocurrency mining facilities into high-performance computing sites capable of running artificial intelligence (AI) workloads.
Mara brings data centers with access to low-cost energy. SDV adds expertise in design, construction, tenant sourcing, and facility management.
NASDAQ: MARA
Key Data Points
Notably, these sites will be capable of both mining Bitcoin and supporting AI computing operations. Mara will thus be able to better adapt to cryptocurrency price fluctuations and shifting demand trends for AI compute.
The two companies believe these site conversions will help to bring AI infrastructure online faster than traditional new construction projects. Mara and Starwood are targeting 1 gigawatt of near-term capacity, with a longer-term path to over 2.5 gigawatts.
"Mara's power-rich sites give customers what they need most: predictable access to energy at scale," Mara CEO Fred Thiel said in a press release. "Our partnership with Starwood will allow us to turn that power certainty into capacity certainty, so customers can run diverse workloads close to their data and users."
An opportune time to diversify
The announcement came alongside Mara's fourth-quarter financial report. With the price of Bitcoin down sharply from its highs, Mara posted a net loss of $1.7 billion, or $4.52 per share.
