Woofun AI reports that MARA Holdings shares climbed approximately 15% in early Thursday trading, driven by the announcement of a strategic land acquisition in Texas designed to support both AI computing and Bitcoin mining operations. This market reaction underscores a broader industry shift where traditional miners are leveraging existing power infrastructure to enter the high-performance computing sector. The deal targets a site with access to up to 2 gigawatts of electricity, signaling a significant expansion in the company's energy capacity and digital infrastructure ambitions.

The acquired property spans 1,200 acres in Matagorda county, located roughly 90 miles southwest of Houston. According to the project timeline, the site is expected to deliver an initial 1 GW of grid capacity by October 2027, with full capacity reaching up to 2 GW by April 2028. MARA intends to develop this location into a comprehensive digital infrastructure campus that supports high-performance computing alongside its core Bitcoin mining activities. Once fully energized, this addition is projected to more than double the miner’s total potential power capacity to approximately 4.8 GW, substantially increasing its operational scale.

Structurally, the transaction involves HIF USA, which will retain a minority ownership stake in the project contingent upon MARA signing a lease with a high-performance computing tenant. The companies did not disclose the financial terms of the agreement. In a post on X, MARA clarified that the project remains in the early stages of development and is subject to necessary regulatory approvals. Construction is planned to be phased over several years, indicating a long-term commitment to building out the infrastructure rather than an immediate deployment.

Woofun AI data shows that this Texas deal follows a series of aggressive expansion moves by the company. In April, MARA announced it would acquire Long Ridge Energy & Power, a transaction valued at roughly $1.5 billion that includes a 505-megawatt gas-fired power plant and a co-located data center in Ohio. Earlier this year, the company also acquired a 64% stake in Exaion, a French computing infrastructure operator. According to data from BitcoinTreasuries.NET, MARA is currently the fourth-largest publicly traded corporate holder of Bitcoin, with a treasury containing 36,303 BTC.

The pivot toward AI is driven by growing demand for data center capacity, though it presents distinct challenges. Rather than repurposing mining hardware, companies are leveraging existing power infrastructure built to support BTC mining, including grid connections, substations, and energized sites.

However, converting these sites into AI-ready facilities requires significant capital investment. CoinShares estimates that mining infrastructure typically costs $700,000 to $1 million/MW, compared with $8 million to $15 million/MW for liquid-cooled AI infrastructure.

Furthermore, hyperscale customers require higher power density and uptime than many mining facilities were originally designed to provide.

Despite these costs, the market has rewarded miners who secure large-scale AI contracts. Core Scientific expanded its hosting agreement with CoreWeave to more than $10 billion, while Hut 8 signed a 15-year, $7 billion data center lease with Fluidstack. TeraWulf has also reported billions of dollars in contracted HPC revenue. Investors have broadly favored this strategy; Hut 8 shares jumped about 20% after announcing its Fluidstack agreement, and companies with AI and HPC contracts have traded at higher valuation multiples than those focused solely on Bitcoin production, according to CoinShares. Last week, TeraWulf shares rose about 12% after the Bitcoin miner announced a 20-year AI data center lease with Anthropic, expected to generate roughly $19 billion in contract revenue.

MARA is the sixth-largest holding in the sector exchange-traded fund CoinShares Bitcoin Mining ETF, representing 4.76% of assets. The positive sentiment extended to other miners, with WGMI shares up more than 5% in early afternoon trading on Thursday. This trend suggests that the market is increasingly valuing miners based on their potential for diversified revenue streams beyond Bitcoin mining.