MARA Holdings (MARA) Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

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DATE

Mon, Nov. 09, 2026

CALL PARTICIPANTS

• VP of Investor Relations – Robert Samuels
• Chairman and Chief Executive Officer – Frederick Thiel
• Chief Financial Officer – Salman Khan

TAKEAWAYS

• Revenue — $164.2 million, representing a 35% decrease driven primarily by a $94.8 million reduction from lower average Bitcoin prices.
• Net Income — $632.1 million, or $1.28 per diluted share, reflecting an $885.3 million unrealized non-GAAP fair value gain on digital assets.
• Adjusted EBITDA — $857.7 million, an increase of 117% year over year due to the significant mark-to-market improvement in Bitcoin holdings.
• Energized Hashrate — 71.2 EH/s, representing 18% year-over-year growth driven by improvements in miner efficiency.
• Bitcoin Production — 2,247 Bitcoin, a 5% increase versus the prior year period.
• Blocks Won — 644, representing 2% growth year over year despite a 7% decrease from the prior quarter.
• Mining Rewards Share — 5.4%, an increase from 5% in the third quarter of 2025.
• Cost per Petahash — $30.8 per day, an improvement of 2% year over year and 20% over the last eight quarters.
• Energy Cost per BTC — $39,674 for owned and operated sites, an increase from $39,235 in the prior year period due to higher network difficulty.
• Cost per kWh — $0.04 for owned sites, remaining stable versus previous periods.
• Exaion GPU-as-a-Service Contract — $79 million over a 4-year term, signed with a U.S. customer on 100% take-or-pay terms.
• Exaion Pipeline — $3 billion in total contract value, with management targeting $1 billion for delivery by the end of 2027.
• Debt Reduction — $1.4 billion, representing a 37% reduction in total debt since the beginning of the year.
• Post-Quarter Debt Repayment — $750 million, funded by the sale of 13,597 Bitcoin and resulting in the release of 17,477 Bitcoin previously pledged as collateral.
• Long Ridge Acquisition — 485 megawatts of authorized capacity, with an expected increase to 505 megawatts in the first half of 2027 following FERC approval.
• Matagorda County Site — 2 gigawatts of potential capacity, recently classified as study load under ERCOT’s Batch Zero process.
• Share Repurchase Authorization — $500 million, established to provide an additional tool for enhancing shareholder value.
• Cash and Bitcoin Liquidity — $3.8 billion in combined cash and Bitcoin holdings, including 34,012 Bitcoin valued at approximately $2.8 billion at quarter end.
• Vertebrai Performance — 22% curtailment rate at the company’s Texas wind farm, compared to an estimated 46% without the software platform.
• Bitcoin Lending Income — $2.5 million, generated from 1,408 Bitcoin loaned to counterparties during the quarter.
• General and Administrative Expenses — $75.8 million, an 11% decrease reflecting lower stock-based compensation.
• Hosting Contract Expirations — 29% of energy capacity, scheduled to expire between the third quarter of 2027 and the first quarter of 2028 to reduce third-party costs.
• Total Potential Portfolio Capacity — Over 4 gigawatts, subject to the successful closing of Long Ridge and energization of the Matagorda site.

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RISKS

• Thiel stated, “We are still targeting 2 lease signings before year-end. And although market conditions are fluid, that timing could move into next year,” acknowledging potential delays in finalizing customer agreements.

SUMMARY

MARA Holdings, Inc. (MARA +4.57%) reported a strategic transition toward energy-backed digital infrastructure, managing a portfolio with 1 gigawatt of current capacity and a expansion path to over 4 gigawatts. Management stated that the company is commercializing its Exaion and Vertebrai platforms to capture higher margins across the compute stack, moving beyond Bitcoin mining into private cloud and AI services. Revenue declines for the quarter were attributed to lower average Bitcoin prices, though net income and adjusted EBITDA benefited significantly from fair value gains on digital assets. The company emphasized capital flexibility through its $1.4 billion debt reduction year to date and the introduction of a new $500 million share repurchase program.

• Thiel stated, “Since the election, there’s been a significant uptick in demand for our sites, which we believe provides opportunities for pricing power.”
• Khan stated, “Disciplined and patient execution enabled us to capture an estimated net benefit of $170 million,” referring to the timing of Bitcoin sales used to repay collateralized debt.
• Thiel indicated that hyperscalers are increasingly prioritizing developers with credible paths to power over those who have experienced project delays due to development constraints.
• The company estimates that the Vertebrai platform reduced energy curtailment at its Texas wind farm from 46% of potential generation to 22% between April and Sept. 2026.
• Exaion is utilizing older GPU generations for inference and rendering to extend the lifecycle and returns of hardware assets through its orchestration platform.

INDUSTRY GLOSSARY

• EH/s: Energized Hashrate per second, a measure of the total computing power used to mine Bitcoin and secure the network.
• Batch Zero: A specific ERCOT interconnection process for large-scale power projects requiring grid impact evaluations.
• FERC: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the U.S. agency regulating the interstate transmission of electricity and natural gas.
• Vertebrai: MARA’s energy-compute platform that dynamically manages power load based on grid supply and demand.
• HPC: High-Performance Computing, the use of supercomputers to solve complex computational problems.
• GPU-as-a-Service: A cloud model providing on-demand access to Graphics Processing Units for AI training and other workloads.
• Study Load: A classification for large power users undergoing grid impact studies by electricity reliability councils.
• ERCOT: Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates the electric grid for the majority of the state.
• Exaion: MARA’s majority-owned subsidiary focused on private cloud infrastructure and model orchestration.

Full Conference Call Transcript

Operator: Greetings. Welcome to the MARA’s Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to Robert Samuels, VP of Investor Relations. Thank you, Robert. You may begin.

Robert Samuels: Thank you, operator, and good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to MARA’s Third Quarter Fiscal Year 2026 Earnings Call. Thanks for joining us today. With me on today’s call are our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Fred Thiel; and our Chief Financial Officer, Salman Khan. Today’s c

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