Tag: starwood

Marathon Digital Posts $1.7B Q4 Loss from Bitcoin Impairment, Stock Surges 15% on Starwood AI Partnership

admin — Sat, 28 Feb 2026 14:38:34 +0000

Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA) (NASDAQ: MARA), a key player in the digital asset and infrastructure space, recently unveiled its financial performance for the fourth quarter and full fiscal year 2025, alongside two significant partnerships aimed at diversifying its operations beyond traditional Bitcoin mining. These developments... Read More

MARA Reports Massive $1.7B Q4 Loss After Bitcoin’s 30% Slide Triggers $1.5B Markdown

admin — Fri, 27 Feb 2026 19:42:11 +0000

Largest U.S. public Bitcoin miner MARA Holdings stunned the market after reporting a $1.71 billion net loss in Q4 2025, a dramatic swing from the $528 million net income recorded a year earlier.

Revenue declined 6% year-over-year to $202.3 million, while adjusted EBITDA plunged to negative $1.49 billion. The stock had already fallen roughly 46% over the past six months, reflecting pressure across the mining sector.

At first glance, the quarter looks devastating.

But the numbers demand context.

Bitcoin’s 30% Drop Triggers $1.5B Fair-Value Hit

The overwhelming driver behind the loss wasn’t operational collapse, it was accounting mechanics.

During the quarter, Bitcoin fell approximately 30%, sliding from around $114,000 to $88,000. Because MARA holds a substantial Bitcoin treasury, accounting rules require the company to mark those holdings to market value at quarter-end.

That adjustment alone produced a staggering $1.5 billion fair-value markdown.

Accounting did the rest.

As highlighted in this market update, the revaluation of MARA’s Bitcoin reserves accounted for the majority of the reported loss:

MARA reported a $1.7B net loss in Q4 2025, compared with $528M net income a year earlier, largely due to a $1.5B markdown in the fair value of its bitcoin holdings as BTC fell about 30% during the quarter. Revenue declined 6% YoY to $202.3M, and adjusted EBITDA was negative…

— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) February 27, 2026

By year-end, MARA held 53,822 BTC, with about 28% loaned or pledged. It remains one of the largest corporate holders of Bitcoin among publicly traded miners.

This wasn’t a collapse in operations.

It was mark-to-market reality.

Mining Economics Tighten Despite Hash Rate Expansion

Operationally, MARA continued scaling.

The company increased its hash rate to 66.4 EH/s, reinforcing its competitive position in the mining landscape. However, higher computational power did not translate into stronger profitability.

Mining output declined during the quarter, while electricity cost per Bitcoin rose to $48,611, highlighting the growing strain miners face in a high-difficulty, post-halving environment.

The current mining equation is unforgiving:

• Higher network difficulty

• Rising energy costs

• Price volatility

• Compressed margins

Even large-scale operators are feeling the pressure.

Mining is no longer just about hash rate. Efficiency, capital management, and strategic flexibility now define resilience.

AI And High-Performance Compute Become The New Growth Engine

While the earnings report reflected Bitcoin volatility, MARA’s forward-looking strategy captured investor attention.

The company is actively moving beyond pure Bitcoin mining and positioning itself as an energy and compute infrastructure operator.

Key developments include:

• Expansion into AI and high-performance compute (HPC) data centers

• 1 gigawatt (GW) of initial capacity

• Potential expansion to 2.5 GW

• Strategic joint venture with Starwood Capital Group

• Acquisition of a 64% stake in Exaion, targeting enterprise AI workloads

This strategic pivot explains why MARA’s stock jumped more than 15% following the announcement, despite the massive quarterly loss.

Investors are increasingly valuing infrastructure optionality, not just mining output.

Bitcoin Miners Are Evolving Into Energy And Compute Infrastructure Players

The broader mining industry is now bifurcating.

Some operators continue to hoard Bitcoin, doubling down on long-term price appreciation. Others are transforming into hybrid infrastructure platforms, leveraging energy assets to serve AI workloads when mining margins compress.

MARA is clearly positioning itself in the second category.

When mining margins shrink, power becomes optionality.

The same megawatts that secure the Bitcoin network can power AI clusters, enterprise compute, and high-demand data center operations. Instead of relying solely on block rewards, miners can monetize infrastructure across multiple verticals.

Mining struggles.

AI narrative pumps.

Same market. Different story.

The Bigger Picture Behind The $1.7B Loss

Yes, MARA reported a $1.7 billion quarterly loss.

Yes, revenue declined.

Yes, mining margins tightened.

But context matters.

Roughly $1.5 billion of the loss stemmed from a non-cash accounting adjustment tied directly to Bitcoin’s price drop from ~$114K to ~$88K. The balance sheet absorbed volatility, not necessarily operational failure.

Meanwhile, the company ended the year holding 53,822 BTC, expanded its hash rate to 66.4 EH/s, and announced a multi-gigawatt AI data center strategy that could redefine its long-term business model.

The Q4 report captures a company in transition.

From pure Bitcoin miner…

To hybrid energy and compute infrastructure platform.

For years, mining firms were judged primarily on hash rate growth and BTC accumulation. Today, they are increasingly evaluated on megawatt capacity, data center scalability, and AI exposure.

MARA’s quarter may look brutal on paper.

Strategically, it may represent the beginning of a structural reinvention.

Disclosure: This is not trading or investment advice. Always do your research before buying any cryptocurrency or investing in any services.

Follow us on Twitter @themerklehash to stay updated with the latest Crypto, NFT, AI, Cybersecurity, and Metaverse news!

The post MARA Reports Massive $1.7B Q4 Loss After Bitcoin’s 30% Slide Triggers $1.5B Markdown appeared first on The Merkle News.

OpenAI Eyes Biggest US IPO in History Thanks to Nvidia and Amazon

admin — Fri, 27 Feb 2026 16:25:25 +0000

OpenAI on Thursday confirmed a $110 billion valuation, fueling expectations that it could stage the largest IPO in US tech history if it moves forward with a public listing.

The company has not yet filed for an IPO. However, the valuation announced on February 27 positions OpenAI above several landmark Silicon Valley debuts and signals strong backing from major technology investors.

Helping AI reach more people requires deep collaboration across the ecosystem.

Today we’re announcing new investment, with support from @SoftBank, @NVIDIA, and @Amazon, to scale the infrastructure needed to bring AI to everyone.https://t.co/xW0ItgMTLe

— OpenAI (@OpenAI) February 27, 2026 Who are the Big Tech Going All-In on OpenAI?

OpenAI has raised billions in private funding over the past few years. Its most significant backer remains Microsoft, which committed multi-year investments reportedly totaling around $13 billion through structured equity and cloud partnerships.

The new funding includes $30 billion from SoftBank, $30 billion from NVIDIA, and $50 billion from Amazon. Additional financial investors are expected to join as the round progresses.

Other major investors include Thrive Capital, Khosla Ventures, Sequoia Capital, and Andreessen Horowitz. These firms participated in earlier funding rounds as OpenAI scaled ChatGPT and enterprise AI infrastructure.

OpenAI Could be the Biggest IPO in US History

If OpenAI proceeds at this valuation, it would rank among the largest US tech IPOs ever. The scale of this funding dwarfs most historic IPO valuations.

Largest IPO Valuations in History

For comparison, Meta Platforms (Facebook) went public in 2012 at about $104 billion. Snowflake debuted in 2020 at roughly $70 billion. Alibaba Group was listed at around $168 billion in 2014.

Globally, Saudi Aramco still holds the overall IPO record at $1.7 trillion.

At a $730 billion valuation, OpenAI now stands in a different category.

If it proceeds to a public offering, it would likely rank as the largest US tech IPO ever, reflecting the scale of investor conviction behind frontier AI.

The company has not disclosed a potential listing date or share price range. Those details would emerge in a formal IPO filing.

The post OpenAI Eyes Biggest US IPO in History Thanks to Nvidia and Amazon appeared first on BeInCrypto.

MARA Reports $1.7 Billion Q4 Loss After $1.5 Billion Bitcoin Write-Down

admin — Fri, 27 Feb 2026 12:09:20 +0000

MARA Holdings Inc. posted a $1.7 billion net loss in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2025, a sharp reversal from the $528 million profit it recorded a year earlier.

This report comes only hours after the Bitcoin miner entered a strategic partnership with Barry Sternlicht’s Starwood Capital Group.

MARA’s $1.7 Billion Loss Underscores Bitcoin Volatility — But AI Pivot Signals a New Playbook

MARA’s $1.7 billion Q4 loss came against the backdrop of a roughly 30% decline in Bitcoin’s price during the period. This forced the company to take a $1.5 billion non-cash fair value write-down on its digital asset holdings.

Revenue for the quarter slipped 6% year-over-year (YoY) to $202.3 million, down from $214.4 million in Q4 2024.
Adjusted EBITDA swung dramatically to negative $1.49 billion, compared with positive $796 million in the same period last year.
For the full year, MARA reported a net loss of $1.3 billion, compared with net income of $541 million in 2024.

This shows how mark-to-market accounting can amplify volatility for large Bitcoin treasuries. Despite the earnings hit, MARA ended 2025 with 53,822 BTC on its balance sheet, up 20% YoY.

Mara Holdings BTC and Q4 2025 Report. Source: Mara Q4 2025 Report

At a year-end valuation of approximately $87,498 per Bitcoin, those holdings were worth roughly $4.7 billion. Of the total:

38,507 BTC were unrestricted,
9,377 were loaned, and
5,938 were pledged as collateral.

This means about 28% of its Bitcoin stack is encumbered. The company generated $32.1 million in interest income from lending activities during the year.

Liquidity remained substantial. MARA reported about $5.3 billion in combined unrestricted cash and Bitcoin holdings, including loaned and pledged assets.

It also raised $568.6 million in 2025 through its at-the-market (ATM) program but suspended usage in Q4, marking the first quarter since 2022 without tapping the facility.

Operationally, the miner continued to expand. Energized hashrate reached a record 66.4 exahash per second (EH/s) in Q4, up 25% from a year earlier. However, this was below its previously stated 75 EH/s target as management emphasized capital discipline.

AI Infrastructure Pivot Reshapes MARA’s Growth Strategy

Bitcoin production totaled 2,011 BTC in the quarter, down 6% YoY, reflecting higher network difficulty and seasonal energy pressures.

Purchased energy cost per Bitcoin rose to $48,611 in Q4, while cost per petahash per day improved 4% to $30.5. It points to efficiency gains from the deployment of newer equipment.

Beyond mining, MARA is accelerating a strategic pivot toward energy and digital infrastructure, particularly AI and high-performance computing (HPC).

The company announced a joint venture with Starwood Digital Ventures to develop hyperscale, enterprise, and AI-capable data centers.

MARA announces a strategic partnership with Starwood Digital Ventures to accelerate delivery of cutting-edge hyperscale, enterprise, and AI capable digital infrastructure.

The joint platform is expected to deliver approximately 1 GW of near-term IT Capacity, with a pathway to… pic.twitter.com/9rE8orvUnG

— MARA (@MARA) February 26, 2026

The partnership aims to deliver approximately 1 gigawatt (GW) of near-term IT capacity, with a roadmap exceeding 2.5 GW over time.

MARA can invest up to 50% in the projects, positioning itself for recurring infrastructure revenue and reduced exposure to Bitcoin price swings.

The company also highlighted its 64% stake in Exaion and the acquisition of a 42-megawatt data center in Nebraska as part of its AI/HPC expansion strategy.

Adding to market intrigue, MARA recently updated its executive compensation metrics in an 8-K filing. The company tied stock awards to megawatt capacity and contracted recurring revenue rather than solely to mining output.

The filing also introduced a change-of-control provision under which performance targets would automatically be treated as achieved if the company is sold. This move has fueled takeover speculation among investors.

After the close yesterday MARA filed an 8-K updating exec comp: stock awards now tied to overall MW capacity + contracted recurring revenue (not just mining output), and importantly, there is a new change of control provision: if the company gets sold those performance targets… https://t.co/F7GChY5ZTW pic.twitter.com/usoZkxlgfW

— matthew sigel, recovering CFA (@matthew_sigel) February 26, 2026

Taken together, MARA appears to be balancing a massive Bitcoin treasury with an ambitious infrastructure buildout.

If this is true, then its transformation from a pure-play miner to a diversified energy and AI platform may determine whether it can smooth earnings volatility in the next crypto cycle.

The post MARA Reports $1.7 Billion Q4 Loss After $1.5 Billion Bitcoin Write-Down appeared first on BeInCrypto.

MARA’s AI Data Center Pivot: Starwood Partnership Targets 2.5 GW

admin — Thu, 26 Feb 2026 23:47:58 +0000

Bitcoin miner MARA Holdings has entered a strategic partnership with Barry Sternlicht’s Starwood Capital Group to convert its existing mining sites into data center infrastructure for artificial intelligence and cloud computing.

MARA shares jumped approximately 17% in after-hours trading following the February 26 announcement.

Joint Venture Targets 2.5 GW Capacity

The two companies will jointly develop, finance, and operate data center projects across MARA’s existing portfolio. Starwood Digital Ventures, the firm’s data center platform, will handle design, construction, tenant sourcing, and operations. MARA will contribute sites with access to low-cost energy.

The joint platform targets approximately 1 gigawatt of near-term IT capacity, with a pathway to more than 2.5 gigawatts. The facilities will be designed to switch workloads between Bitcoin mining and AI compute depending on market conditions and customer demand. MARA will have the option to retain up to 50% ownership in the joint venture, with both companies sharing development costs and profits. Financial terms were not disclosed.

“Our partnership with Starwood will allow us to turn power certainty into capacity certainty,” said MARA CEO Fred Thiel, adding that the joint venture offers a more capital-efficient approach to infrastructure buildout.

Starwood Capital manages more than $125 billion in assets. Starwood Digital Ventures operates a 94-person team with data center expertise across more than 10 GW.

Miners Pivot Toward AI Infrastructure

The announcement coincided with MARA’s fourth-quarter earnings, which revealed a $1.7 billion net loss driven largely by unrealized writedowns on its Bitcoin holdings. Quarterly revenue came in at $202 million, down 6% from the same period a year earlier. The company trails only Michael Saylor’s Strategy Inc. in corporate Bitcoin holdings.

MARA’s move fits a pattern across the mining sector. Companies that once focused solely on Bitcoin production are repurposing their energy assets and physical infrastructure for AI workloads, attracted by shorter lead times compared to building new facilities from scratch.

Several miners that embraced this transition early, including IREN, TeraWulf, and Cipher Mining, have seen their market capitalizations outpace MARA’s despite producing less Bitcoin mining hash power. Meanwhile, Starboard Value has taken a significant stake in Riot Platforms, pressuring the Texas-based miner to accelerate its own data center conversion efforts.

JLL and Paul Weiss served as MARA’s strategic and legal advisors.

The post MARA’s AI Data Center Pivot: Starwood Partnership Targets 2.5 GW appeared first on BeInCrypto.

MARA swings to $1.7 billion Q4 loss on bitcoin markdown, shares jump 15% after Starwood AI deal

admin — Thu, 26 Feb 2026 22:35:10 +0000

A steep accounting loss tied to bitcoin’s price decline overshadowed gains, but MARA is betting its future on AI-driven revenue.

Starwood Hotels Adds Foursquare to Loyalty Program

admin — Tue, 10 May 2011 16:41:09 +0000

Foursquare has partnered with Starwood Hotels and Resorts to begin offering members of the Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) loyalty program additional points, badges and rewards for their checkins at participating hotels.

Beginning Tuesday, Foursquare members who connect their SPG and Foursquare accounts will earn 250 bonus Starpoints when they check in with a confirmed reservation at one of more than 1,000 hotels.

Starwood first announced the new program Tuesday morning via its SPGInsider Twitter account, tweeting: “Checking-in just got even more rewarding. Link your SPG acct with foursquare and earn bonus Starpoints, visit http://bit.ly/SPG4Square.”

“We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to work with Starwood on what will be one of the widest reaching loyalty integrations on any location-based service,” says Tristan Walker, director of business development for Foursquare. “Foursquare is focused on helping businesses reward loyal customers, and few companies truly understand customer loyalty like Starwood, so the partnership is a natural fit.”

Starwood properties include the St. Regis, W Hotels, Four Points, Westin, Le Meridien and Sheraton hotels.

The promotion runs through July 31, 2011, and members who check in during the promotion period will be eligible to win a resort getaway. SPG members will receive one entry per checkin.

Starwood is also hiding a Free Resort Night Award at some hotel locations. SPG members may find and unlock the reward by checking in between now and May 31, 2011.

SPG members who check in frequently at Starwood locations may be anointed as the “SPG Mayor.” Each month, Starwood will declare the member with the most checkins across all its properties as the SPG Mayor. “Mayoral duties will include sharing your favorite insider travel tips and destination hotspots with fellow frequent travelers around the globe,” according to Starwood promotional materials.

Starwood plans to kick off additional Foursquare promotions in August, but details are unknown at this time.

The partnership furthers Foursquare mission to reinvent loyalty programs and most closely resembles a similar program it started with Safeway last year.

More to come …

More About: checkins, foursquare, loyalty, loyalty program, MARKETING, SPG, starwood hotels

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