MARA Holdings just made its largest acquisition ever, and it has nothing to do with buying more Bitcoin mining rigs. The company has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Long Ridge Energy & Power from FTAI Infrastructure for approximately $1.5 billion, inclusive of assumed debt.
The deal hands MARA a 505 MW combined-cycle gas power plant in Hannibal, Ohio, along with more than 1,600 contiguous acres of land already equipped with the infrastructure needed to build out large-scale computing facilities.
What MARA is actually buying
MARA expects the acquisition to boost its owned-and-operated capacity by 65%, bringing its total to approximately 2.2 GW.
The financial profile looks attractive on paper. MARA projects an annualized adjusted EBITDA contribution of approximately $144 million from the Long Ridge asset, with operational costs coming in below $15 per megawatt-hour.
The Bitcoin-to-AI pivot accelerates
The acquisition price of roughly $1.5 billion, which MARA describes as “below-replacement cost,” suggests that building an equivalent facility from scratch would cost significantly more.
Construction for AI and critical IT infrastructure at the Long Ridge site is expected to begin in the first half of 2027, with initial capacity targeted for mid-2028.
Why this matters for investors
Pure-play Bitcoin mining margins have been compressed since the April 2024 halving, which cut block rewards in half.
Look at the competitive landscape. Core Scientific has already signed a multi-billion-dollar deal with CoreWeave to provide AI hosting. Iris Energy and Hut 8 have also been pivoting toward high-performance computing. MARA’s Long Ridge acquisition puts it in direct competition with these companies for AI infrastructure contracts, but with a differentiated advantage: it now owns the power source itself, rather than simply buying electricity on the open market.
The sub-$15/MWh operating cost is the number to watch. The 2028 timeline for initial AI capacity means investors will need patience. The near-term value of this deal is the power plant’s existing cash flows and the EBITDA contribution.
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