MARA Makes $168M AI Move with Exaion Stake Purchase

Tech

MARA Makes $168M AI Move with Exaion Stake Purchase

The Bitcoin miner can increase its stake to 75% by 2027, and plans to leverage Exaion‘s partnerships with Nvidia and Deloitte to expand globally into enterprise and public-sector markets. Despite a recent production dip behind rival IREN, MARA’s Q2 revenue surged 64% to $238 million, and it is still the second-largest corporate Bitcoin holder with $6 billion in BTC.

MARA Targets AI Future

Bitcoin miner is making its biggest move into yet after agreeing to in Exaion, a subsidiary of French state-owned energy giant Électricité de France, in a $168 million deal. The agreement was announced on Tuesday. MARA also has the option to boost its stake to 75% by 2027 with an additional $127 million investment if certain performance milestones are met.

Exaion specializes in high-performance computing data centers and AI and cloud infrastructure, working with partners like and Deloitte. The acquisition is expected to close in the fourth quarter, pending necessary approvals, and will position Exaion to expand its services internationally to enterprise and public-sector clients.

MARA CEO that the partnership will allow the companies to deliver secure, scalable cloud solutions at a time when data protection and energy efficiency are top priorities for governments and businesses. Thiel explained that MARA chose not to rush into AI and HPC data center ventures, instead opting to invest in a partner with proven expertise and an established client base to ensure a faster, more credible entry into the sector.

The expansion comes at a time when Bitcoin mining difficulty continues to surge, raising energy demands and squeezing unless they adopt more efficient equipment or reduce energy costs. MARA, which is the largest Bitcoin miner by production, network hashrate, and market cap, has been slower than many peers to .

In July, the company mined 703 Bitcoin, falling behind rival IREN, which produced a record 728 Bitcoin that month. This was partly due to MARA having fewer active mining machines. Despite the dip in output, MARA‘s jumped 64% year-on-year to $238 million, and the firm holds 50,000 Bitcoin worth nearly $6 billion. This makes it the corporate Bitcoin holder after Michael Saylor’s .