MARA Announces Strategic Partnership with Starwood to Accelerate Delivery of Cutting Edge Hyperscale, Enterprise and AI Capable Digital Infrastructure
Rhea-AI Summary
MARA (NASDAQ: MARA) entered a strategic partnership with Starwood Capital and Starwood Digital Ventures to convert and expand select MARA sites into hyperscale, enterprise and AI-capable digital infrastructure. The joint platform targets approximately 1 GW of near-term IT capacity with a pathway to more than 2.5 GW.
SDV will lead design, development, tenant sourcing, construction and operations while MARA contributes power-rich sites; Starwood provides investment expertise to improve project-level economics. MARA also announced a Feb. 26, 2026 conference call to discuss Q4 and FY2025 results.
Positive
- ~1 GW near-term IT capacity commitment
- Pathway to >2.5 GW scalable capacity
- SDV to lead design, development, tenant sourcing and operations
- Capital-efficient JV structure to accelerate buildout
Negative
- No financial terms disclosed for the partnership
- No firm timeline provided for achieving the >2.5 GW capacity target
Market Reaction – MARA
Following this news, MARA has gained 13.37%, reflecting a significant positive market reaction. Argus tracked a peak move of +5.8% during the session. Our momentum scanner has triggered 36 alerts so far, indicating elevated trading interest and price volatility. The stock is currently trading at $9.58. This price movement has added approximately $377M to the company's valuation.
Data tracked by StockTitan Argus (15 min delayed). Upgrade to Silver for real-time data.
Key Figures
Market Reality Check
Peers on Argus
MARA is up 6.46% while momentum peer WULF shows a -1.70% move and sector peers like RIOT (0.29%) and BMNR (4.95%) are mixed, pointing to a stock-specific reaction to this infrastructure and AI partnership.
Historical Context
| Date | Event | Sentiment | Move | Catalyst |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 20 | Earnings call scheduled | Neutral | +0.1% | Scheduled call to discuss Q4 and FY 2025 financial results. |
| Nov 04 | Q3 2025 earnings | Positive | -6.7% | Revenues and net income improved sharply with higher bitcoin holdings. |
| Nov 04 | Power/data partnership | Positive | -6.7% | LOI for integrated power generation and data center campuses in West Texas. |
| Oct 21 | Earnings call scheduled | Neutral | -4.6% | Announcement of webcast and call for Q3 2025 financial results. |
| Oct 03 | Mining update | Neutral | +0.2% | Monthly bitcoin production, hashrate, and operations performance update. |
Recent MARA news has often seen muted or negative reactions, including prior positive fundamentals and partnership updates coinciding with -6.68% moves, suggesting occasional divergence between upbeat announcements and short-term price performance.
Over the last six months, MARA has focused on scaling energy-backed compute infrastructure and communicating financial progress. Key events include strong Q3 2025 results with sharply higher revenues and bitcoin holdings, a West Texas power and data center collaboration targeting up to 1.5 GW, and regular earnings call scheduling plus mining updates. Despite positive fundamentals, some past earnings and partnership releases saw share price declines around -6.68%. Today’s Starwood partnership and AI-capable infrastructure push build on this strategy of expanding large-scale, power-rich campuses.
Market Pulse Summary
The stock is surging +13.4% following this news. A strong positive reaction aligns with MARA’s pivot toward AI-capable digital infrastructure. The Starwood partnership targets about 1 GW of near-term IT capacity with a pathway to 2.5 GW, extending earlier power and data center collaborations. Historically, even robust earnings and infrastructure news sometimes preceded declines around -6.68%, so investors examining sustainability may watch execution on these campuses and the balance between bitcoin mining and AI workloads.
Key Terms
hyperscale technical
ai technical
data center technical
bitcoin mining technical
AI-generated analysis. Not financial advice.
Joint Platform Expected to Deliver Approximately 1 GW of Near-Term IT Capacity, with Pathway to More than 2.5 GW
Miami, FL, Feb. 26, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MARA Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: MARA), a leading energy and compute infrastructure company, today announced it has entered into a strategic agreement with Starwood Capital Group (“Starwood”) and their dedicated data center development platform Starwood Digital Ventures (“SDV”). The partnership will enable the conversion and expansion of select MARA sites into next generation digital infrastructure capable of meeting the growing demand from enterprise, hyperscale and AI customers.
Together, MARA and Starwood will jointly develop, finance, and operate digital infrastructure projects across MARA’s existing, power-rich portfolio. SDV will lead design, development, tenant sourcing, construction and facility operations with Starwood, a leading global investment firm, providing investment expertise to support enhanced project-level economics. MARA will contribute dedicated, energy-advanced data center sites. Together, the companies expect to deliver approximately 1 gigawatt of near-term IT capacity with a pathway to more than 2.5 gigawatts. By combining MARA’s energy-backed infrastructure and operating discipline with SDV’s proven track record, we believe the companies will bring leading digital infrastructure to market faster and with greater certainty than traditional development models.
“MARA’s power rich sites give customers what they need most: predictable access to energy at scale,” said Fred Thiel, MARA’s Chairman and CEO. “Our partnership with Starwood will allow us to turn that power certainty into capacity certainty, so customers can run diverse workloads close to their data and users. This joint venture structure also gives us a more capital-efficient way to accelerate the buildout of digital infrastructure across our portfolio. Together, this partnership will accelerate our expansion into high-performance computing and advance our strategy to build an integrated, energy-backed digital infrastructure platform.”
“We are excited to partner with MARA and leverage the skill and industry expertise of our Starwood Digital Ventures platform to create significant value together,” said Barry Sternlicht, Chairman and CEO of Starwood Capital. “Data centers are the infrastructure responsible for driving the modern economy, and our partnership with MARA expands our opportunities to continue investing in this sector.”
“Under this partnership, SDV will leverage the strong execution capabilities and decades of experience across its team to deliver the scale and performance modern customers demand with an emphasis on community-conscious infrastructure,” said Anthony Balestrieri, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer for Starwood Digital Ventures. “MARA’s operating sites and energy expertise help advance SDV’s operating philosophy in new and growing markets.”
The Intersection of Energy and Compute
MARA’s sites operate at the intersection of energy and compute, and SDV’s development engine adds the strong execution and operating capabilities that will be required to convert and expand these sites into scalable and sustainable digital infrastructure.
The companies will prioritize sites with access to low-cost energy, strong interconnection positions, and clear pathways to scale. These campuses will be designed to operate both Bitcoin mining and AI compute, giving MARA the ability to toggle workloads in response to market pricing and customer demand. This flexibility will create a clear upside for both partners, preserve economics across cycles, and provide a foundation for long term growth.
MARA Conference Call and Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2025 Results
MARA has separately announced financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended December 31, 2025. The Company will hold a webcast and conference call at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time (2:00 p.m. Pacific Time) today to discuss financial results.
To register to participate in the conference call, please use the link below.
Date: Thursday, February 26, 2026
Time: 5:00 p.m. Eastern time (2:00 p.m. Pacific time)
Registration link: LINK
The webcast will also be available for replay at MARA’s website at ir.mara.com. If you have any difficulty connecting to the conference call, please contact MARA’s investor relations team at ir@mara.com.
Advisors
JLL and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton and Garrison LLP are serving as MARA's strategic and legal advisors in the transaction, respectively.
About MARA
MARA (NASDAQ: MARA) deploys digital energy technologies to advance the world's energy systems. Harnessing the power of compute, MARA transforms excess energy into digital capital, balancing the grid and accelerating the deployment of critical infrastructure. Building on its expertise to redefine the future of energy, MARA develops technologies that reduce the energy demands of high-performance computing applications, from AI to the edge.
For more information, visit www.mara.com, or follow us on:
X: @MARA
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/MARAHoldings
Facebook: www.facebook.com/MARAHoldings
Instagram: @MARAHoldingsInc
About Starwood Capital Group
Starwood Capital Group (“Starwood”) is a leading global investment firm with more than
Starwood has assembled one of the largest global, privately held data center development portfolios with its platforms Starwood Digital Ventures, Echelon Data Centers, its investment in ESR in Asia and joint ventures with major electric and telecom utilities including Iberdrola, S.A. in Spain and Telstra Group in Australia. Starwood is also a leading provider of credit to digital infrastructure projects through its listed mortgage REIT, Starwood Property Trust, its credit fund series and its infrastructure lending platform, Starwood Infrastructure Finance (“SIF”), which focuses on the power and energy sectors. Internationally, major development projects are currently in process in the UK, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Australia, and Japan.
About Starwood Digital Ventures
Starwood Digital Ventures (“SDV”) is Starwood Capital Group’s specialized, in-house platform for digital infrastructure investment, focusing on the development and management of data centers and digital assets. SDV’s 94-person team with data center expertise across more than 10 GW leverages decades of proven development experience and the latest technology to ensure its facilities are built and operate to the highest standards.
MARA Investor Notice
Investing in MARA securities involves a high degree of risk. Before making an investment decision, you should carefully consider the risks, uncertainties and forward-looking statements described under the heading “Risk Factors” in MARA’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and any other periodic reports that MARA may file with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”). If any of these risks were to occur, MARA’s business, financial condition or results of operations would likely suffer. In that event, the value of MARA securities could decline, and you could lose part or all of your investment. The risks and uncertainties described herein and in MARA’s SEC filings are not the only ones facing MARA. Additional risks not presently known to MARA or that MARA currently deems immaterial may also impair MARA’s business operations. In addition, MARA’s past financial performance may not be a reliable indicator of future performance, and historical trends should not be used to anticipate results in the future. See “Forward-Looking Statements” below.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included in this press release are forward-looking statements. The words “may,” “will,” “could,” “anticipate,” “expect,” “intend,” “believe,” “continue,” “target” and similar expressions or variations or negatives of these words are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Such forward-looking statements include, among other things, statements related to MARA and SDV’s planned joint development of digital infrastructure projects; the expected capacity, scalability and performance of those facilities; the anticipated ability to shift between hyperscale and AI workloads and Bitcoin mining at those facilities; the anticipated benefits of the proposed transaction to MARA, including MARA’s expansion into high-performance computing; and MARA and SDV’s ability to advance and execute their joint digital energy infrastructure strategy. Such forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations about future events as of the date hereof and involve many risks and uncertainties that could cause MARA’s actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in these forward-looking statements. Subsequent events and developments, including actual results or changes in MARA’s assumptions, may cause MARA’s views to change. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements included herein are expressly qualified in their entirety by these cautionary statements. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including uncertainties related to market conditions, the other factors discussed in the “Risk Factors” section of MARA’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the U.S. SEC and the risks described in other filings that MARA may make from time to time with the SEC. Any forward-looking statements contained in this press release speak only as of the date hereof, and MARA specifically disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except to the extent required by applicable law.
Contacts
MARA Contacts:
MARA Investor Relations: ir@mara.com
MARA Media: mara‑jf@joelefrank.com
Starwood Digital Ventures Contacts:
Dana Gorman / Mallory Griffin
H/Advisors Abernathy
dana.gorman@h-advisors.global / mallory.griffin@h-advisors.global
212.371.5999
FAQ
What did MARA (MARA) announce on Feb 26, 2026 with Starwood?
How much IT capacity will the MARA–Starwood joint platform deliver near-term and long-term?
What roles will Starwood Digital Ventures and MARA play in the partnership?
Will MARA disclose financial terms or timing for the Starwood partnership?
Where can investors listen to MARA’s Feb 26, 2026 conference call about results and the partnership?
