Mara Holdings (Mara) has a surprising pivot from Bitcoin
Mara has long been the idea of helping utility companies balance grid loads, but HC Wainwright analyst Kevin Dede said he hopes to remain within the scope of a mining-centric strategy, rather than a direct entry into HPC build-out.
However, with half the Bitcoin events looming in 2028 and 2032 and there is a demand for artificial intelligence (AI) to drive premium returns on computing power, analysts write that HPC offers a stronger margin than mining alone.
Mara is the latest Bitcoin mining company that pivots to AI and HPC. Core Scientific (CORZ) first joined the party last June when it announced its 12-year contract with AI cloud provider CoreWeave (CRWV). The AI company agreed to buy Corz in all shares last month.
Pivot to HPC places Mara in a sovereign cloud AI service. This is the niche behind a corporate firewall, where data is private, but scaling may require deep networking and expertise, the report says.
HC Wainwright said the acquisition is a wise entry into HPC, giving it credibility that Mara might not be able to achieve on its own. The broker repeated the purchase rating of the stock with a price target of $28. The stock was 0.6% higher, with a trade of around $15.76 at the time of publication.
Mara’s valuation is supported by recent Bitcoin meetings, Treasury adoption and an influx of fund fuel fuel for exchange sales, but the risk remains. These range from BTC price volatility and network difficulty to operational challenges for capital dilution and data center development, the report added.
read more: Mara, owner of nearly $600 million BTC, raises another $950 million to buy Bitcoin
