Third-quarter 2026 earnings call, November 9, 2026
Bitcoin-backed debt repaid, with a claimed $170 million benefit
The most concrete development on MARA's third-quarter call was balance sheet repair. After quarter end, the company sold 13,597 Bitcoin at an average price of about $81,039, generating more than $1.1 billion, and used the proceeds to repay in full the $750 million it borrowed in August against Bitcoin. CFO Salman Khan said the loan was taken out when Bitcoin traded near $64,000, and that "disciplined and patient execution" produced an estimated net benefit of $170 million. The repayment released 18,750 pledged Bitcoin. Loaned or pledged Bitcoin, which stood at 57% of holdings (19,260 coins) at quarter end, has fallen to less than 5%. Total debt is down $1.4 billion, or 37%, since the start of the year.
The sequence is worth noting. MARA borrowed against its coins to fund the Long Ridge acquisition rather than sell them at depressed prices, then sold into the rally. That was a good outcome, but it also shows how much of the company's financial flexibility still depends on Bitcoin's price path. The company ended the quarter with $946.5 million of cash and about $3.8 billion of combined cash and Bitcoin, based on 34,012 Bitcoin valued at $83,556. Management said this is sufficient to meet the convertible note puts, which it did not size on the call. Khan went further, arguing that because of the Starwood partnership model, "we can go multi-gigawatt build opportunity through the existing liquidity that we have on the balance sheet." That claim is untested until a lease is signed and a financing is structured.
A new $500 million buyback authorization, framed as optionality
After quarter end, the board authorized a repurchase program of up to $500 million. Management was careful to present it as discretionary. CEO Fred Thiel said it "does not mean that we will not continue to invest in high-return projects," but that in current market conditions an open program is "an additional tool to possibly increase shareholder value." Khan noted that "while markets have declined, Bitcoin has remained resilient." Pressed on the pace of further Bitcoin sales, Khan offered no schedule, saying only that the coins are a strategic asset to be used methodically to pay down debt, meet the puts, fund development or repurchase shares as conditions dictate. Investors should read the authorization as competing with AI infrastructure capital, not as a replacement for it.
Long Ridge nears closing and brings contracted cash flow
FERC approval, described as the last material contingency, has been received for the Long Ridge acquisition, which MARA expects to close within weeks. The combined-cycle gas plant is authorized to sell 485 megawatts and is expected to reach its 505-megawatt nameplate in the first half of 2027. About 70% of output is hedged under long-term contracts, and the asset has historically produced more than $140 million of annualized adjusted EBITDA. That would give MARA a source of earnings that does not depend on Bitcoin, which is rare among its peers.
The site also carries over 1,600 contiguous acres with access to power, water, fiber and rail, adjacent to MARA's existing Hannibal mining operation. Thiel described a build-out sequence of 20 megawatts of grid connection at Hannibal, 200 megawatts behind the meter, and further capacity through plant expansion and added grid supply, for a total potential near 1 gigawatt. He said he does not foresee significant regulatory obstacles, noting the plant is already emitting and sits on a former aluminum smelter site. The behind-the-meter permitting work has been underway in anticipation of closing.
AI leases: two still targeted by year-end, but timing is slipping
MARA continues to target two lease signings before year-end, but Thiel acknowledged that "although market conditions are fluid, that timing could move into next year." That is an explicit hedge. Asked what remains at Kearney, the company's most advanced site, Thiel said the open items are on the customer side: "some things on the customer side that just need to be dotted and t's crossed." He added that delays at the last minute typically come from tenants rather than developers.
Management's argument is that the market has moved toward its approach. Thiel said demand for MARA sites has surged since the election, including at locations once viewed as peripheral, which he believes creates room for pricing power. He also said hyperscalers are "spending an inordinate amount of time dealing with delays caused by first-time developers," and that those that have worked with Starwood know what they are getting. Tenants are conducting far deeper diligence on power contracts and permitting, and have sent operations, engineering and network teams to nearly all MARA sites. The company is doing predevelopment work on power and networking before leases are signed, though it will not build a building without a tenant. Thiel was explicit that MARA is "not in the build it and they will come business," and that on modular designs, including NVIDIA's reference architectures, the tenant will drive the decision and bear the technology risk.
Exaion's first contract: small, but a useful read on pricing
Exaion, MARA's majority-owned French cloud subsidiary, signed a four-year, $79 million GPU-as-a-service agreement with a US customer on 100% take-or-pay terms. The pipeline is cited at more than $3 billion of total contract value, with about $1 billion targeted for delivery by the end of 2027. Management stressed that the pipeline is indicative demand and not contracted. The initial contract is small relative to the inquiries Exaion is receiving.
Macquarie's Paul Golding calculated that $1 billion of demand against roughly 30 megawatts implies annual recurring revenue in the mid-$30 millions per megawatt. Thiel did not dispute the characterization, saying the pricing is "quite good" and the term of a little over four years is about average for the market. He said using B300 GPUs instead of waiting for Vera Rubin makes "all the sense in the world" financially, given pricing, delivery timing and early-adopter risk. The B300s have been ordered, with deliveries running from this month through early December, and the first portion of the contract is expected to be ready for service before year-end.
The capacity is in already-built French data centers, with the hosting in France serving a US customer. Thiel said Exaion's build plan does not depend on MARA developing anything in the US, and that the company also has capacity in Canada. Analyst Kevin Dede noted that Exaion's Sherbrooke site is small and that Hydro-Quebec is tight with power. Thiel declined to criticize the utility and did not provide a megawatt figure for Canada. A strategic differentiator Thiel pointed to is GPU life extension: Exaion cascades hardware from model training to inference to 3D rendering. He also said MARA has not seen any limits in GPU procurement, and that some delivered GPUs are sitting idle because sites are not energized.
Vertebrai shows measurable curtailment benefit
MARA offered its first quantified data on Vertebrai, its flexible energy-compute platform. At its Hansford County, Texas wind farm, from April through September 2026, the company estimates that 46% of potential generation would have been curtailed without the system. With on-site compute absorbing surplus power, that figure fell to 22%. The company is now looking to sell the capability to other power producers and data center developers. It is an early proof point, but it is one site over one six-month period, and the revenue contribution was not disclosed.
Matagorda terms softened; Texas policy risk is the open question
MARA holds rights to a site of more than 1,200 acres in Matagorda County, Texas, classified as study load under ERCOT's Batch Zero process, with potential access to up to 2 gigawatts. During the quarter the company amended the purchase agreement and revised milestones to reduce near-term cash commitments. MARA made no upfront payment and will incur no further costs to the seller until milestone progress is made. Asked about the Texas political change, Thiel said it does not alter the contract. He expects Batch Zero approval and study-load status to deliver power on roughly similar timelines, and noted the new governor has said approved projects will proceed. He acknowledged that Texas will want to ensure consumers are not harmed. The site is near a nuclear plant, has high-voltage infrastructure on site, and Thiel said Bitcoin could be mined there profitably. Management's 4-gigawatt portfolio target depends on both the Long Ridge close and Matagorda energization.
Bitcoin mining: weaker revenue, better efficiency, hosting roll-off ahead
Revenue fell 35% to $164.2 million from $252.4 million a year earlier. Mining revenue accounted for $83.1 million of the decline, as a 37% drop in average Bitcoin price removed $94.8 million, partly offset by $11.7 million from higher production. MARA mined 2,247 Bitcoin, or 24.4 per day, and won 644 blocks, up 2% year on year but down 7% from the second quarter. Energized hash rate was 71.2 exahash per second, up 18%, and share of available rewards rose to 5.4% from 5.0%. Analyst Christopher Brendler said hash rate came in below his expectations, and Thiel attributed growth to replacing older machines with more efficient ones at low hardware prices.
Reported net income was $632.1 million, or $1.28 per diluted share, and adjusted EBITDA was $857.7 million, but both include an unrealized fair value gain of about $885.3 million on digital assets. Excluding that gain, the operating picture is a business with lower revenue and little profit. Cost per petahash per day improved 2% to $30.8, and is down 20% over eight quarters. Purchased energy cost per Bitcoin at owned sites was $39,674, up slightly from $39,235. G&A fell 11% to $75.8 million, helped by a $9.8 million reduction in stock-based compensation.
Third-party hosting, representing about 29% of total energy capacity, begins to expire in the third quarter of 2027 and should conclude by the first quarter of 2028. MARA expects hosting costs to disappear and cost per kilowatt hour to improve, with the lost hash rate replaced through upgrades at other sites. Thiel also said that modular mining units can be redeployed between sites, preserving flexibility as certain locations are converted to AI campuses.