Bitcoin Miner MARA Enters High Performance Computing Market by Acquiring Majority Stake in EDF Subsidiary: HC Wainwright

MARA Holdings (MARA) Surprisingly Divests Bitcoin Assets

$119,631.61 worth of BTC miner Roots announced late Monday that it has acquired a 64% stake in Exaion, a high-performance computing (HPC) subsidiary of French energy giant EDF, broker HC Wainwright reported in a research report Tuesday.

While MARA has long promoted the idea of supporting energy companies to balance the network load, HC Wainwright analyst Kevin Dede believes that this will remain part of a mining-focused strategy and will not lead to the active development of high-performance computing.

However, given the expected Bitcoin halvings in 2028 and 2032, as well as the high demand for artificial intelligence (AI), which creates significant profitability for computing power, MARA expects HPC to provide greater profitability compared to mining alone, the analyst notes.

MARA is the latest Bitcoin mining company to pivot to AI and high-performance computing. Core Scientific (CORZ) was the first to do so last June when it announced a 12-year deal with AI cloud provider CoreWeave (CRWV). Last month, the AI company agreed to acquire CORZ in its entirety, buying all of its shares.

The report highlights that the move to HPC also positions MARA in the area of independent AI cloud services, a niche where data remains private and protected by corporate firewalls but requires deep networking and computing expertise to scale.

HC Wainwright noted that the acquisition is a smart move for HPC, adding credibility to MARA that it might not have achieved on its own. The broker reiterated a “buy” rating on the stock with a $28 price target. At press time, the stock was up 0.6%, trading around $15.76.

While MARA's valuation has increased thanks to the recent rise in Bitcoin, the adoption of Treasuries, and the influx of funds from exchange-traded funds, risks remain. These range from BTC price volatility and network difficulties to capital erosion and operational difficulties associated with data center development, the report notes.

Read more: MARA, Owner of Nearly $6 Billion BTC, Raises $950 Million to Buy More Bitcoin

Source: cryptonews.net