(Bloomberg) -- One of the world’s biggest Bitcoin miners is buying a wind farm to power its operations as big tech firms increasingly suck up available sources of electricity for their own data centers.
MARA Holdings Inc. bought the North Texas wind farm in Hansford County from a joint venture between National Grid Plc and the Washington State Investment Board, according to a filing with the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The sale price wasn’t disclosed. MARA plans to use the facility’s 114 megawatts of power to mine Bitcoin when the wind is blowing and halt operations when it’s not.
“We can move the market to where the electrons are, as opposed to moving the electrons to where the market is,” MARA Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Fred Thiel said in an interview, adding that the facility will likely operate about 30% of the time. “We eliminate the dependence on the grid.”
A few years ago Bitcoin miners took part in a global scramble for electricity to power their specialized computers that solve mathematical puzzles in return for compensation in the form of Bitcoin or other crypto tokens. But the rise of artificial intelligence, with its insatiable demand for electricity, dwarfed the needs of crypto and upended energy markets worldwide. Miners must now compete with much-larger tech firms for connections to electrical grids and power contracts.
“Bitcoin miners are being forced to go look at marginal generation,” said Thiel. “The AI guys can afford to pay a much higher amount for energy than a Bitcoin miner.”
Thiel said he wasn’t worried about regulators blocking Mara’s wind farm purchase the way the top US energy regulator last month rejected a special deal that would have allowed an Amazon.com Inc. data center to use more power from an adjacent nuclear power plant.
MARA’s plan to mine only when the wind is blowing makes economic sense because its mine will house last-generation computers that would otherwise have been retired, Thiel said. The sale is expected to close in the first quarter of 2025, according to the company. Thiel said he’d be interested to potentially buy more wind farms over time.
Shares of MARA have increased around 9% this year. Bitcoin has more than doubled in value. National Grid declined to comment.
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