MARA Holdings has accomplished the acquisition of a majority stake in French computing infrastructure operator Exaion, deepening its push into synthetic intelligence (AI) and cloud providers.
The deal, first agreed in August 2025 with EDF Pulse Ventures, provides MARA France a 64% stake in Exaion after required regulatory approvals had been secured, the Bitcoin miner mentioned in a Friday announcement. French vitality big EDF will stay a minority shareholder and proceed as a buyer of the enterprise.
The funding additionally creates a broader alliance. NJJ Capital, the funding automobile of telecom entrepreneur Xavier Niel, will purchase a ten% stake in MARA France as a part of a partnership with MARA.
Governance of Exaion will replicate the brand new possession construction. The corporate’s board will embrace three representatives from MARA, three from EDF Pulse Ventures and one from NJJ, alongside Exaion’s chief govt and co-founder. Niel and MARA CEO Fred Thiel will each maintain seats on the board.
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Bitcoin miners pivot to AI amid strain
Bitcoin mining corporations are more and more turning to AI and knowledge heart computing as strain on mining economics grows. After the 2024 halving reduce block rewards and rising community issue squeezed margins, a number of publicly traded miners started adopting a hybrid mannequin, preserving mining as a supply of money circulation whereas constructing steadier income from AI cloud and high-performance computing providers.
HIVE Digital Applied sciences is one instance of the shift. The corporate reported sturdy outcomes even throughout weaker Bitcoin costs, supported by increasing AI operations. CoreWeave has additionally moved from crypto mining to turn into a significant AI infrastructure supplier after GPU mining demand fell.
Different corporations, together with TeraWulf, Hut 8, IREN and MARA, are additionally repurposing mining amenities and vitality capability into AI knowledge facilities.
In November final yr, CleanSpark introduced plans to lift roughly $1.13 billion in internet proceeds, as much as $1.28 billion if extra notes are bought, by way of a $1.15 billion senior convertible be aware providing to fund enlargement of its Bitcoin mining and knowledge heart operations.
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Bitcoin mining issue jumps 15%
In the meantime, Bitcoin’s mining issue rose about 15% to 144.4 trillion on Friday, reversing an 11% drop earlier within the month, the steepest decline since China’s 2021 mining ban. The sooner fall adopted extreme winter storms throughout the USA that disrupted energy grids and quickly compelled many miners offline, sharply lowering hash fee.
Whereas the upper issue reinforces Bitcoin’s safety, it additionally raises the computing effort wanted to mine new blocks, including additional margin strain on operators already coping with rising prices.
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