{"id":94526,"date":"2026-02-21T13:23:01","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T10:23:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=94526"},"modified":"2026-02-21T13:25:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T10:25:12","slug":"bitcoin-miner-mara-completes-acquisition-of-ai-infrastructure-provider-exaion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/bitcoin-miner-mara-completes-acquisition-of-ai-infrastructure-provider-exaion\/","title":{"rendered":"Bitcoin Miner MARA Completes Acquisition of AI Infrastructure Provider Exaion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>American mining company MARA Holdings has finalized the acquisition of a 64% stake in French data center operator Exaion.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">It\u2019s time. MARA\u2019s transaction to acquire a 64% stake in EDF subsidiary Exaion has been completed, with Xavier Niel and Fred Thiel joining Exaion\u2019s Board as we scale secure HPC and AI infrastructure from France. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/TqFiSs3Hub\">pic.twitter.com\/TqFiSs3Hub<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 MARA (@MARA) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MARA\/status\/2024850122056581470?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 20, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The financial terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed. In August 2025, Bloomberg reported that MARA <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/mara-ventures-into-ai-infrastructure-with-168-million-deal\">had offered<\/a> $168 million in cash to Exaion&#8217;s owner, the investment arm of energy giant EDF.<\/p>\n<p>According to a press release, EDF retained a minority stake in its former subsidiary.<\/p>\n<p>As part of the deal, MARA entered into a strategic partnership with NJJ Capital, owned by French billionaire Xavier Niel. NJJ Capital will acquire a 10% stake in the miner&#8217;s financial division.<\/p>\n<p>Exaion&#8217;s board of directors will include three representatives each from MARA and EDF Pulse Ventures, and one from NJJ. The board will also feature the CEO and co-founder of the data center provider, mining firm CEO Fred Thiel, and Niel.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Cost of Delaying the AI Pivot?<\/h2>\n<p>In January, MARA <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/bitdeer-surpasses-mara-with-ai-investment-and-bitcoin-sales\">lost its leadership<\/a> among public companies in the industry by total Bitcoin <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/what-are-hashrate-and-mining-difficulty-in-cryptocurrencies\">hashrate<\/a>. It was surpassed by Bitdeer.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"507\" src=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/img-fb257d995f74cb81-6885262336733242-1024x507.jpeg\" alt=\"image\" class=\"wp-image-275530\" srcset=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/img-fb257d995f74cb81-6885262336733242-1024x507.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/img-fb257d995f74cb81-6885262336733242-300x149.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/img-fb257d995f74cb81-6885262336733242-768x380.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/img-fb257d995f74cb81-6885262336733242.jpeg 1262w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/bitcoinminingstock.io\/hashrate\">BitcoinMiningStock<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In terms of market capitalization, MARA has slipped to <a href=\"https:\/\/bitcoinminingstock.io\/stock-data\">eighth place<\/a> in the segment with a valuation of $3 billion. As recently as mid-October, the company&#8217;s market value was around $8.5 billion. It has been overtaken by competitors like <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/bitcoin-miner-iren-secures-9-7-billion-contract-with-microsoft\">IREN<\/a> ($13.4 billion) and <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/google-becomes-largest-shareholder-in-bitcoin-miner-terawulf\">TeraWulf<\/a> ($6.3 billion), which are actively expanding their involvement in AI services.<\/p>\n<p>MARA <a href=\"https:\/\/bitcointreasuries.net\/\">holds<\/a> 53,250 BTC (valued at ~$3.6 billion), second only to <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/strategy-amasses-717131-btc-after-168m-bitcoin-purchase\">Strategy<\/a> in terms of corporate Bitcoin reserves.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier in February, mining company Cango <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/bitcoin-miner-cango-sells-4451-btc-and-announces-ai-expansion\">sold 4,451 BTC<\/a> (approximately 60% of its cryptocurrency holdings) and announced an expansion into AI.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>American mining company MARA Holdings has finalized the acquisition of a 64% stake in French data center operator Exaion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":94527,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"MARA Holdings acquires 64% of Exaion, a French data center operator.","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[438,83,1137,1185],"class_list":["post-94526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-business","tag-cryptocurrency-mining","tag-marathon-digital-holdings"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"243","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"MARA Holdings acquires 64% of Exaion, a French data center operator.","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94526"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94526\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94528,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94526\/revisions\/94528"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}