Bitcoin miner MARA Holdings may spend $168 million to acquire a majority stake in a French data firm, Bloomberg reported on Monday, citing anonymous sources.
If the transaction moves forward, MARA will pay $168 million in cash to secure a 64% stake in Exaion from EDF Pulse Ventures, according to the report. Exaion develops and runs data centers while also providing cloud and artificial intelligence infrastructure.
"While other top mining companies including Core Scientific Inc. and Hut 8 Corp., are focused on providing data-center infrastructure for so-called hyperscalers, MARA plans to build out operations for AI inference, which is a specific part of AI data processing that tends to require lower overhead investment," Bloomberg said.
MARA could potentially increase its stake in Exaion to 75% for an additional $127 million. EDF plans to remain a minority shareholder.
Along with an industry shift towards artificial intelligence and high-performance compute, crypto miners continue to recover profitability from the fourth Bitcoin halving in April 2024.
MARA has also recently leaned into a Bitcoin treasury strategy. It raised approximately $940.5 million to help buy more Bitcoin.
Less than two weeks ago, MARA reported its adjusted EBITDA had skyrocketed over 1,000% year on year. In the second quarter of this year, MARA earned $808.2 million, compared to a net loss of nearly $200 million in the prior-year quarter.
The company is the largest bitcoin miner by market cap and the second-largest corporate BTC holder after Strategy.
