Bitcoin Miner MARA Expands AI Infrastructure With Texas Site Acquisition, Stock Price Surges

MARA Holdings, the publicly traded Bitcoin-mining giant, announced Thursday that it has agreed to acquire a sprawling tract of land in Matagorda County, Texas, from synthetic-fuels developer HIF USA. The site spans more than 1,200 acres and comes with access to up to 1 gigawatt of electrical grid capacity by October 2027, and as much as 2 gigawatts the following spring. MARA plans to develop a computing campus there alongside Starwood Digital Ventures, potentially housing both AI data centers and Bitcoin-mining machines. The announcement sent MARA shares up more than 15% on the day to a recent price of $13.87, per Yahoo Finance, pushing the firm's monthly gain above 4% and its year-to-date gain above 54%.

Background

The deal is the latest sign of an unusual convergence reshaping the power industry, according to Decrypt: companies once known purely for mining Bitcoin are transforming into infrastructure developers, chasing the same scarce electrons that AI companies desperately need. MARA, based in Miami, has been deepening its bet that America's power grid—not the cryptocurrency itself—is the real asset worth owning. The company said the transaction, once fully built out, would help push its total power portfolio to nearly 4.8 gigawatts, including a previously announced acquisition of an Ohio power plant—a scale that rivals some regional utilities. HIF USA, which had been eyeing the Matagorda County site for its own fuel-production plans, will keep a minority stake once a computing tenant signs a lease, and says it will continue pursuing its other fuel projects elsewhere in Texas and abroad. For Matagorda County, a rural stretch of the Texas Gulf Coast about 90 miles southwest of Houston, the promise is more concrete: thousands of construction and permanent jobs, company officials said, as MARA adds to the more than $1.2 billion it says it has already invested in the state. MARA shares are up more than 54% so far in 2026 on the back of sizable AI compute demand and the resulting hype from investors.

What happened

MARA Holdings announced Thursday that it has struck a deal with HIF USA, a synthetic-fuels developer, to acquire a sprawling piece of land in Matagorda County, Texas, about 90 miles southwest of Houston, according to Decrypt. The site spans more than 1,200 acres and comes with access to significant electrical grid capacity: up to 1 gigawatt by October 2027, and as much as 2 gigawatts the following spring. MARA plans to turn the property into a computing campus, developed alongside Starwood Digital Ventures, that could house both AI data centers and the energy-hungry machines that mine Bitcoin. HIF, which had been eyeing the site for its own fuel-production plans, will keep a minority stake once a computing tenant signs a lease, and says it will continue pursuing its other fuel projects elsewhere in Texas and abroad. MARA said the deal, once fully built out, would help push its total power portfolio to nearly 4.8 gigawatts—including a previously announced acquisition of an Ohio power plant—a scale that rivals some regional utilities. MARA Chairman and CEO Fred Thiel said in a statement: "This transaction advances our strategy of securing strategically located infrastructure assets capable of supporting high-performance compute and Bitcoin workloads. As demand for digital infrastructure continues to grow, we believe sites with access to reliable, scalable power will become increasingly valuable. This acquisition meaningfully expands our long-term development pipeline and strengthens our ability to support high-performance compute and maximize the value of that power over time." For Matagorda County, company officials said the promise is thousands of construction and permanent jobs, as MARA adds to the more than $1.2 billion it says it has already invested in the state.

Market impact

Shares in MARA are up more than 15% on the day at a recent price of $13.87, per Yahoo Finance, pushing the firm's monthly gain above 4%. So far in 2026, MARA shares are up more than 54% on the back of sizable AI compute demand and the resulting hype from investors. The stock move followed Thursday's announcement of the Matagorda County land acquisition from HIF USA. The source material does not provide trading volumes, flows, or comparable moves for HIF USA or Starwood Digital Ventures. No other market figures are given. The deal's stated power figures—up to 1 gigawatt by October 2027 and as much as 2 gigawatts the following spring—are capacity targets, not current operating metrics. MARA said the transaction, once fully built out, would help push its total power portfolio to nearly 4.8 gigawatts, including a previously announced Ohio power plant acquisition. The company also says it has already invested more than $1.2 billion in Texas. These are the only numerical data points present in the source.

Why it matters

The transaction is the latest sign of an unusual convergence reshaping the power industry: companies once known purely for mining Bitcoin are transforming into infrastructure developers, chasing the same scarce electrons that AI companies desperately need, according to Decrypt. MARA's CEO said sites with access to reliable, scalable power will become increasingly valuable as demand for digital infrastructure continues to grow. The deal would push MARA's total power portfolio to nearly 4.8 gigawatts once fully built out, a scale that rivals some regional utilities, the company said. For Matagorda County, a rural stretch of the Texas Gulf Coast, the promise is thousands of construction and permanent jobs, company officials said, as MARA adds to the more than $1.2 billion it says it has already invested in the state. HIF USA will keep a minority stake once a computing tenant signs a lease and will continue pursuing its other fuel projects elsewhere in Texas and abroad. The arrangement pairs a Bitcoin miner with a synthetic-fuels developer and a digital-infrastructure partner, Starwood Digital Ventures, illustrating how power access is becoming the organizing principle for compute buildouts.