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Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA) has announced a strategic partnership with Starwood Capital Group and its data center platform, Starwood Digital Ventures (SDV), to expand and convert select sites across the U.S. to support enterprise, hyperscale, and AI workloads.
Under the newly signed joint venture agreement, the two companies will collaborate to develop, finance, and operate projects within MARA’s existing site portfolio. Starwood Capital will provide investment support at the project level, while SDV will take charge of design, development, tenant sourcing, construction, and facility management. MARA, on its part, will contribute sites that already feature robust energy access and infrastructure.
The partnership aims to deliver approximately 1GW of near-term IT capacity, with the potential to scale up to more than 2.5GW over time. This expansion will prioritize sites with low-cost power access, strong grid interconnection positions, and room for further development. The facilities will support Bitcoin mining and AI workloads, providing MARA with the flexibility to adjust capacity based on market conditions and customer demand.
"MARA’s power-rich sites give customers what they need most: predictable access to energy at scale", said Fred Thiel, Marathon Digital’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."
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Starwood Capital, which holds a 50 percent stake in European data center operator Echelon Data Centres, brings significant expertise to the table. Barry Sternlicht, chairman and CEO of Starwood Capital, emphasized the importance of this collaboration, stating: "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. 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."
MARA is a leading Bitcoin mining company in the U.S., known for utilizing stranded energy assets to power its modular mining units. In recent years, the company has undertaken several high-profile projects. Last April, MARA fully energized a 25MW modular cryptomine data center powered by flared natural gas in Texas and North Dakota. In December 2024, MARA acquired an onshore wind farm with plans to establish a behind-the-meter Bitcoin mining operation.
Meanwhile, Starwood Digital Ventures has been expanding its footprint in the U.S. data center market. In July of last year, the company filed plans to develop a 1.2GW, 11-building data center campus in Delaware.
This joint venture reflects a shared vision between MARA and Starwood to capitalize on the growing demand for reliable data infrastructure. By combining resources and expertise, the partnership is poised to make a significant impact on the evolving digital economy.
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