Mining Company MARA Cuts About 15% of Workforce, Shifts Focus Towards AI and Digital Infrastructure

Odaily News: Bitcoin mining company MARA has announced a workforce reduction of approximately 15%, affecting full-time employees across multiple departments and some contractors. In an internal memo, CEO Fred Thiel stated that this layoff is a strategic decision as the company focuses on new directions, necessitating corresponding adjustments to the team structure. Affected employees will receive one month of paid leave and 13 weeks of severance compensation.

MARA had previously begun venturing into AI and high-performance computing businesses. In February of this year, it completed the acquisition of a majority stake in Exaion, a data center subsidiary of the French national energy company EDF. It also reached an agreement with data center developer Starwood to repurpose approximately 1 gigawatt of Bitcoin mining infrastructure for AI workloads.

MARA currently operates a hash rate of about 66.45 EH/s, accounting for roughly 5% of the total Bitcoin network hash rate. The company recently sold over 15,000 BTC, valued at approximately $1.1 billion, to repay $1 billion in convertible notes. In 2025, MARA reported a net loss of $1.3 billion, with an adjusted EBITDA of negative $330.8 million.