MARA Locks Down 1,200 Texas Acres and a Path to 2 GW of Power

MARA Holdings announced on July 9 that it signed an agreement with HIF to acquire a strategic powered land site in Matagorda County, Texas.

The site sits about 90 miles southwest of Houston and spans more than 1,200 acres.

MARA said the land has a path to up to 1 GW of grid capacity by October 2027 and up to 2 GW by April 2028, subject to ERCOT and other approvals.

Wall Street liked it. The Block reported MARA shares rose roughly 14% in early trading after the announcement.

MARA has entered into a definitive agreement with HIF to acquire a strategic powered land site in Texas. The site spans more than 1,200 acres with access to up to an initial 1 GW of grid capacity by October 2027 and up to 2 GW by April 2028, subject to ERCOT approval.

We intend… pic.twitter.com/OZ0DvKlZoQ

— MARA (@MARA) July 9, 2026

The plan is to develop the site through MARA’s partnership with Starwood Digital Ventures as a large-scale digital infrastructure campus for high-performance computing and flexible compute, including bitcoin mining.

That dual-use design is the point. Miners are chasing powered land that can host AI tenants and swing bitcoin production up or down against grid conditions.

Powered land is the scarce resource in this race. Anyone can order rigs or GPUs.

Very few players hold acreage with a real line to gigawatts of energy.

The status here is early and staged. Nothing at Matagorda is energized today, and 2 GW is a 2028 target that depends on approvals landing on schedule.

MARA’s July 9 release laid out the framework and tied the acquisition to a campus designed for high-performance computing and flexible compute, including bitcoin mining.

The company said HIF would retain a minority ownership interest once a lease is executed with an HPC tenant. That detail matters because it keeps the seller tied to the site’s upside if the data-center plan advances.

MARA said the property spans more than 1,200 acres, with access to up to 1 GW of grid capacity by October 2027 and up to 2 GW by April 2028, subject to ERCOT and other approvals.

It also said full energization would more than double MARA’s potential power capacity to about 4.8 GW across the portfolio, including the anticipated close of Long Ridge.

Phased construction is expected to begin in 2026 if regulatory approvals come through. MARA said the project could support thousands of Texas construction and permanent full-time jobs if it gets built, which is why the announcement reads as an infrastructure-development plan as much as a mining expansion.

The legal shape of the deal came through in MARA’s SEC filing the same day. A MARA subsidiary, Volt Texas, LLC, entered a Membership Interest Purchase Agreement with HIF USA LLC.

The project company holds rights under land purchase contracts, title to an adjacent owned site, and rights under a utility letter agreement for 2,000 MW of power capacity.

The price is milestone-based. Payments are tied to regulatory approvals, land acquisition, power authorization, and execution of a data-center lease with a third-party tenant.

If every milestone is achieved, the aggregate purchase price will be $600 million. That full number is contingent, so it is a ceiling tied to the project actually advancing, not a check already written.

THE BLOCK: MARA Holdings is acquiring a 1,200-acre powered land site in Texas with plans to build a 2 GW AI and bitcoin campus. The milestone-based deal is worth up to $600 million, with initial grid capacity expected by late 2027.

$MARA pic.twitter.com/9ThQ6P73sG

— The Block (@TheBlockCo) July 9, 2026

The Block framed the agreement as up to $600 million in milestone payments and noted the site has drawn interest from potential HPC tenants before any final lease was announced.

The report also gave the market reaction, saying MARA shares rose roughly 14% in early trading after the announcement. That reaction shows investors are treating power access and AI-campus optionality as core parts of the mining-company story.

No HPC tenant has signed yet. Interest and a signed lease are different things, and the lease is one of the milestones the whole structure hangs on.

The Block also broke down how the Starwood partnership works. Starwood handles design, development, construction, and tenant sourcing, while MARA contributes powered sites and energy infrastructure.

That split lets MARA lean into what it controls, which is land and power access, and hand the buildout and leasing to a partner built for it.

The same report kept the timing cautious, with initial capacity expected in late 2027 and the full 2 GW target dependent on ERCOT approvals and project execution into 2028.

The bigger read for the mining sector is where the competition has moved. The fight has pushed beyond hash rate.

It is about who can secure Texas-scale energy that AI and bitcoin can share.

MARA now has a claim staked on that ground. Whether it turns into an energized 2 GW campus depends on approvals, construction, and a tenant signing on the dotted line.

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