Bitcoin Mining No Longer Tops Revenue Streams for Some Miners
MARA CEO Fred Thiel says artificial intelligence infrastructure earns more revenue per electron than bitcoin mining. This shift in strategy reflects tougher mining economics, where electricity is the largest operating expense and bitcoin's scheduled halvings reduce rewards. MARA has begun buying sites with previously hosted mining equipment and turning its focus to energy assets.
The company partnered with Starwood on a platform targeting 1 gigawatt of near-term computing capacity and aims for beyond 2.5 GW. It also acquired a Texas site with access to roughly 2 GW of power for digital infrastructure. Thiel rejected the idea that AI will replace mining across MARA's portfolio, saying 'Bitcoin is a great way to optimize electrons, even in a data center-centric world.'