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Selling $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin: The world's largest mining company MARA fully shifting to AI infrastructure!

MARA Holdings (formerly Marathon Digital Holdings) recently made a decision that has left the Bitcoin community feeling mixed: selling approximately $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin to make way for the company's transition to AI infrastructure!

From the perspective of Bitcoin holders, a publicly traded company whose business model is "digital gold mining" starting to sell Bitcoin to build data centers feels like a betrayal.

But when piecing together the financial report figures, transaction details, and industry background, this story is far more complex than a mining company's defection.

Secrets Hidden in the Financials

MARA's first-quarter 2026 performance was unimpressive: revenue of $175 million, down 18% year-over-year; net loss expanded to about $1.26B, compared to $533 million in the same period last year.

$1.26B sounds frightening, but a closer look at the footnotes reveals that most of this is an unrealized loss from Bitcoin fair value adjustments—Bitcoin prices fell from about $87k in the first quarter to $67k, causing MARA's held Bitcoin to shrink in value, directly impacting the income statement.

When a mining company's profitability increasingly depends on Bitcoin's market value fluctuations rather than the cash flow from mining operations itself, does its business model still qualify as "mining"?

How much was sold, and how much remains?

In Q1 2026, MARA sold about 20,880 Bitcoin, totaling approximately $1.5 billion in proceeds.

Of these, 15,133 were sold in March, raising about $1.1 billion, which was directly used to repurchase approximately $1 billion in convertible notes, reducing total convertible debt from about $3.3 billion to roughly $2.3 billion.

But after the sale, MARA still holds about 35,303 Bitcoin, worth roughly $2.9 billion. It is currently the fourth-largest corporate Bitcoin holder globally (after Strategy, Twenty One Capital, and Metaplanet). MARA sold about 37% of its Bitcoin holdings.

CFO Salman Khan said during the earnings call: "Bitcoin is not only a reserve asset on the balance sheet but also a source of strategic financial flexibility."

Additionally, about 99.95 million of these 35,303 Bitcoin are pledged or lent out, meaning the actual freely available position is even smaller.

MARA's $1.5 billion Acquisition

On April 30, MARA announced an agreement with FTAI Infrastructure to acquire Long Ridge Energy & Power for about $1.5 billion, including a 505 MW natural gas power plant (in Hannibal, Ohio) and over 1,600 acres of land, with operating costs below $15 per megawatt-hour.

The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2026, with initial AI infrastructure deployment in the first half of 2027, and full operations possibly by mid-2028. This is not a revenue-generating project immediately but a significant bet on the future.

Why do this?

CEO Fred Thiel explained plainly: "Power is the scarce input for AI; the core bottleneck in the AI race is not algorithms or chips but electricity."

This logic mirrors CoreWeave's successful path! CoreWeave accumulated large amounts of GPUs and power resources early on, transforming from a mining operation into a valuation of hundreds of billions of dollars AI cloud computing company.

MARA aims to replicate this: owning power plants, building data centers, and leasing computing power to AI companies. The acquisition of Long Ridge is expected to generate about $144 million in annual adjusted EBITDA, signaling a transition from highly volatile Bitcoin mining to more stable cash flow from AI compute leasing.

Not Only MARA Is Doing This

MARA isn't the first mining company to pivot. Riot Platforms is building large-scale data center parks in Texas, with major shareholders like Starboard Value pushing for accelerated AI/HPC transformation.

Most notably, Hut 8 announced on May 6 a 15-year, $9.8 billion AI data center leasing contract (Beacon Point park, 352 MW, Texas).

The underlying logic is consistent: Bitcoin mining margins are continuously shrinking, while AI compute demand is exploding, with electricity becoming the bottleneck—mining companies have access to power, cooling infrastructure, and operational experience.

Where are the risks?

First is competition. CoreWeave has established a first-mover advantage and deep ties with NVIDIA, serving clients like Microsoft and Meta. Why would MARA secure similar-sized clients?

Second is debt. The $1.5 billion acquisition of Long Ridge includes about $785 million of inherited debt. Coupled with MARA's existing debt load, if Bitcoin prices fall again, the book value of the remaining 35,303 Bitcoin could sharply decline.

Third is execution risk. Operating AI data centers requires serving enterprise clients with high availability and low latency, which is a completely different scale from mining. MARA laid off about 15% of staff in April and acquired a 64% stake in French operator Exaion for $168 million to address this, but whether they can truly fill the gap remains uncertain.

Market Impact

MARA's off-market Bitcoin sales minimize direct price impact on the market. But MARA isn't the only miner selling—several listed miners sold about 32,000 Bitcoin in Q1, enough to create structural selling pressure.

Looking longer-term, the core story isn't just miners selling Bitcoin but redefining their business models—if MARA succeeds, it could provide a new narrative for the industry: miners can profit by "providing infrastructure for AI" rather than just "hoarding coins for appreciation."

This could shift market valuation logic for miners—from "Bitcoin mining" to "AI infrastructure."