Bitcoin Miner MARA Eyes AI Growth in $168M EDF Deal

MARA Holdings Inc. is nearing a $168 million deal to buy EDF’s Exaion. The move signals a major push into artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure beyond Bitcoin mining operations.

MARA Targets AI Expansion With $168M Exaion Deal

MARA Holdings Inc. is close to acquiring a controlling stake in Exaion from Electricité de France SA in a deal worth about $168 million. According to an SEC filing, the agreement would give MARA 64% ownership of Exaion through EDF Pulse Ventures, EDF’s venture arm.

The Bitcoin miner could later raise its stake to 75% for an additional $127 million if certain conditions are met. EDF would remain a minority shareholder in the French high-performance computing firm.

MARA is seeking to expand beyond cryptocurrency operations into artificial intelligence infrastructure. Exaion deploys and manages data centers of high-performance computing, cloud services, and AI infrastructure.

Its services help to establish sovereign data systems for companies to retain control over sensitive information and work on AI-based applications. The strategy by MARA is to focus on AI inference services.

This is a part of AI data processing with less required investment compared to training the whole model. MARA’s model is a contrast to the direction of other miners such as Core Scientific and Hut 8. These two firms supply infrastructure to hyperscale cloud providers.

Bitcoin Miner Enters New Markets as Industry Demand Increases

The AI industry has attracted some tens of billions of investments. Hence, it has become attractive to miners as they seek additional income sources amid growing competition in the mining sector.

Bitcoin mining companies are using the availability of power and their experience in energy management to penetrate the AI market. In addition, increased pressure on AI computing resources is presenting new opportunities to infrastructure providers.

MARA is also pursuing a Bitcoin treasury strategy, using equity and debt financing to acquire billions in Bitcoin while retaining all mined coins. The Bitcoin miner recently raised $950 million to buy more BTC.

This approach aims to position MARA as a stock market proxy for Bitcoin, similar to Michael Saylor’s Strategy. Shares of MARA rose 1.8% to $15.67 in New York trading session, giving it a market value of $5.8 billion.

The company remains the largest Bitcoin miner. If the deal proceeds, it would mark one of MARA’s most significant steps toward becoming a diversified infrastructure provider in both crypto and AI sectors.