Mining company MARA lays off about 15% of its workforce, shifting focus towards AI and digital infrastructure

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

MARA had previously begun expanding 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 approximately 5% of the global Bitcoin network hash rate. The company recently sold over 15,000 BTC, worth about $1.1 billion, to repay $1 billion in convertible notes. In 2025, MARA reported a net loss of $1.3 billion, with adjusted EBITDA at negative $330.8 million.