MARA and Bitdeer Stocks Rally Thanks to U.S. Operations Expansion

Shares of MARA Holdings and Bitdeer Technologies pumped Thursday after both Bitcoin mining companies and data center operators  announced separate U.S. expansion plans on the same day. MARA stock rallied by 13% to $13.87 before retracing to $13.22 at the close of trading hours. Bitdeer also jumped 14.1% to $14.33.

Bitcoin miner MARA buys 1,200-Acre Texas site 

Before the stock rallies, MARA shared that it had agreed to purchase 1,200 acres of land in Matagorda County, Texas. This would provide the company with access to a considerable amount of electrical grid capacity in that area.

The location can produce a capacity of up to 1 gigawatt by October 2027, and has the potential of doubling this to 2 gigawatts next spring. The plan for the land is to develop it into a computing campus in partnership with Starwood Digital Ventures, where Bitcoin mining and AI data centers will operate.

According to MARA, the deal will increase its power portfolio capacity to 4.8 gigawatts after the development of the location. It follows its acquisition of an Ohio power plant.

"This transaction advances our strategy of securing strategically located infrastructure assets capable of supporting high-performance compute and Bitcoin workloads," MARA Chairman Fred Thiel said. "As demand for digital infrastructure continues to grow, we believe sites with access to reliable, scalable power will become increasingly valuable."

The firm also said the project is expected to bring in thousands of jobs to Matagorda County. They added that the Texas deal builds on more than $1.2 billion that it has already invested in the state. MARA shares are up over 45% year to date.

Bitdeer breaks ground on Nevada manufacturing facility

In another move, Bitdeer Technologies revealed plans to build a $36 million production factory in Sparks, Nevada. This acquisition was done to start the assembly process of their SEALMINER series of Bitcoin miners. It is going to minimize the company’s dependency on external hardware manufacturers.

This factory is going to help in the production of components for mining hardware domestically. The commercial production is expected to commence before the end of the year. Paul Hanson, the chairman of the company, expressed his enthusiasm for this new acquisition.

“The Sparks facility reflects our strategy to strengthen supply chain resilience while being closer and more responsive to onshore customers,” he said. “Producing our advanced SEALMINER units right here in Nevada reflects our long-term commitment to building capacity.”

Bitdeer CEO Catherine Guo said the company worked with Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo's administration and local authorities to secure tax incentives. Included in the deal were reductions in qualifying sales taxes.

The company’s stock immediately recovered from a sell-off that had plagued the shares earlier in the week. The stock is still about 27% below its June high despite Thursday's gains. Bitdeer is still up 26% year-to-date.

The new facility will focus just on Bitcoin mining hardware production. Bitdeer, like MARA, has also expanded into AI cloud services and high-performance computing.