MARA Won’t Spend On AI Builds Without Signed Tenants, Says CEO – AI Deals Could Arrive By Year-End

• MARA CEO Fred Thiel said in an interview with Bloomberg TV that the company’s AI infrastructure expansion will follow a ‘build-to-suit’ model.
• Thiel added that Google, Microsoft, AWS, and Anthropic would all require different AI infrastructure specifications.
• He reiterated that MARA is expected to announce one or two AI-related leasing deals before the end of the year.

Marathon Holdings (MARA) CEO Fred Thiel reportedly said on Wednesday that the company’s AI data center push will follow the ‘build-to-suit’ model and reiterated one or two deals may be announced by the end of the year. 

In an interview with Bloomberg TV, Thiel said the company will not commit capital to construction projects until tenants are signed. “We don't build in advance of having a tenant signed,” Thiel said. “We're not going to go spend the capex like some of our peers have done in advance of having a tenant.”

He added that MARA has not signed any AI-related leases yet, but discussions are active across roughly 90% of the company’s portfolio. “Our expectation is we’ll announce one or two leases by the end of this year,” Thiel stated.

MARA’s stock edged 0.2% higher in morning trade. Retail sentiment on Stocktwits around the Bitcoin (BTC) miner, currently pivoting toward data center infrastructure, trended in ‘bullish’ territory over the past day, accompanied by ‘high’ levels of chatter.

MARA Takes Tenant-First Approach To AI Infrastructure

According to Thiel, prospective customers, including hyperscalers and cloud providers, all require different infrastructure configurations, making speculative construction inefficient.

“If Google’s a tenant, they have a particular spec. Microsoft may have a different spec. AWS, Anthropic, whomever — they all have different specs for what they want,” he said. “So for us, it’s all built to suit.”

Thiel also pointed to MARA’s partnership with Starwood as a competitive advantage, citing the firm’s experience building and operating large-scale data centers for major technology companies. The firm also announced a $1.5 billion acquisition of Long Ridge Energy & Power last month.

Thiel Says MARA Has Power Advantage In AI Race

MARA announced that it would expand beyond Bitcoin mining in 2024 and pivoted towards power generation for AI in 2025. Thiel noted that the company currently controls roughly 1.1 gigawatts (GW) of energized capacity, giving it an advantage in a market where AI companies are scrambling for electricity to support compute-heavy workloads.

“The key gating item in the AI industry today is availability of power,” Thiel said. “If you don't have power where you can plug compute in, you don't have sales.” Thiel added that MARA’s sites already have land and power infrastructure in place, allowing tenants to move more quickly than if they were starting from scratch elsewhere.

He estimated that once permits and construction are completed, tenants could be operational within 18 to 24 months.

MARA’s stock has gained nearly 40% this year, but has fallen over 20% in the last 12 months. 

Read also: Bitcoin Slips Below $80K After PPI Data Triples Forecast, Adding To Inflation Fears

For updates and corrections, email newsroom[at]stocktwits[dot]com