New York, Feb 27, 2026, 05:23 (EST) — Premarket
- MARA surged roughly 16% before the bell after announcing a new data-center deal with Starwood aimed at artificial intelligence.
- Bitcoin miner reported a preliminary net loss of $1.7 billion for Q4, as a $1.5 billion fair-value markdown on digital assets weighed heavily on results.
- Investors want to see more clarity on tenant demand, when buildouts will actually happen, and the company’s audited annual report.
Shares of MARA Holdings (MARA.O) jumped roughly 16%, hitting $9.82 in premarket trading this Friday. The move came as the company unveiled a fresh data-center partnership, even as it reported a sharp quarterly loss in its latest results update.
MARA, in its shareholder letter, outlined a pivot toward high-performance computing, saying it aims to leave behind its image as a “pure-play Bitcoin miner” and instead remake itself as an “energy and digital infrastructure company.” The company pointed to its partnership with Starwood Digital Ventures, which they claim will back more than 1 gigawatt of IT capacity — the kind that can be converted into server racks — and is planning for a runway that stretches past 2.5 gigawatts, longer term. MARA
The agreement with Starwood will see select MARA sites converted and upgraded into sprawling data-center campuses aimed at enterprise, hyperscale, and AI clients. “MARA’s power rich sites give customers what they need most: predictable access to energy at scale,” Chairman and CEO Fred Thiel said. Starwood Capital chief Barry Sternlicht, for his part, described data centers as “the infrastructure responsible for driving the modern economy,” in a statement released jointly by the companies. GlobeNewswire
Fourth-quarter revenue at the company dropped 6% to $202.3 million, with MARA reporting a net loss of $1.7 billion, or $4.52 per diluted share. The results included a $1.5 billion hit connected to the fair value of its digital assets. For the full year, revenue climbed 38% to $907.1 million, but MARA still booked a $1.3 billion net loss. As 2025 closed, the company held 53,822 bitcoin and reported 66.4 exahashes per second of energized hashrate, reflecting its mining capacity.
Bitcoin slipped around 2.3% to trade near $66,871, so the stock’s initial rally was fueled by company headlines, not a wider swing in the token.
Traders are eyeing whether the premarket jump sticks as liquidity comes in, and if MARA can finally attach real dates and customer deals to the Starwood plan. The “power-rich” site story has played well with investors so far; now comes the test—how fast can those sites land actual compute customers, and what’s the price tag for getting there?
The earnings snapshot threw the business model’s challenges into sharp relief: wild crypto price moves can easily swamp any operating gains. Meanwhile, capital and focus are shifting to AI-ready campuses, diverting resources from mining right as network rivalry and power costs start to shift once more.
Next, eyes turn to fresh details expected on the debut projects tied to the Starwood platform. Investors are also waiting for MARA’s 10‑K. That filing will lock in the figures that were earlier shared as preliminary and unaudited.
