MARA: Permian Basin

Overview

MARA Holdings (NASDAQ: MARA), formerly Marathon Digital Holdings, is one of the largest publicly traded Bitcoin miners in North America and the holder of one of the largest corporate BTC treasuries. Founded in 2013 and headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the company is led by CEO Fred Thiel. Operations span large-scale mining campuses in West Texas (Garden City, Granbury, Permian Basin), Kearney NE, Paraguay (Hernandarias), and Abu Dhabi.

Strategic pivot to digital energy (2026)

On the Q1 2026 earnings call (reported May 11, 2026), Thiel reframed MARA as a "digital energy" company rather than a Bitcoin miner, describing the quarter as "a redefining quarter, not an incremental one." Management's stated identity going forward: "MARA deploys digital energy technologies to advance the world's energy systems and transforms excess energy into digital capital."

The pivot is being executed across three vectors:

• AI/HPC compute. Closed acquisition of Exaion, a French AI/HPC operator spun out of EDF, giving MARA a sovereign-grade European compute footprint and customer relationships.
• Owned power generation. Announced a $1.5 billion acquisition of Long Ridge Energy Terminal in Hannibal, Ohio, comprising a 505 MW combined-cycle natural gas plant and ~1,600 acres of adjacent land zoned for AI/HPC and digital infrastructure development.
• Capital reallocation. Sold approximately 15,100 BTC for $1.1 billion to fund the pivot, and took $45.9 million in restructuring charges including a $41.8 million write-down on mining rigs being phased out.

Q1 2026 financials

• Revenue: $174.6 million, down 18% year over year, with substantially all revenue still from Bitcoin mining.
• Net loss: $1.26 billion, reflecting BTC mark-to-market and restructuring charges.
• Strategy: maintain mining cash flow short-term while preserving optionality to convert capacity to AI/HPC.

Capex direction

New capital is flowing to AI/HPC infrastructure and owned power generation (Exaion, Long Ridge), not to new mining hashrate. Mining continues at existing campuses as a near-term cash generator and as a flexible load that can be displaced by higher-value compute as AI tenant demand materializes.