Bitcoin mining firm MARA Holdings said it is now looking to capitalize on the “second wave” of AI as it posted strong results for the fourth quarter of 2024. 

The strong results sent MARA (MARA) shares up 7% in after-hours trading.

MARA said in its Feb. 26 fourth quarter statement that it is looking to become the base layer of infrastructure that powers AI and high-performance computing applications — similar to what Cisco did in the “internet boom.”

“Whether for Bitcoin mining or AI inference, we believe our technologies will activate others to build while MARA provides the picks and shovels to deploy new systems and services, such as energy management, load balancing and infrastructure.”

MARA said it took a “strategic pause” to assess the first wave of AI — leveraging data centers to train large language models — while many of its Bitcoin miner “competitors rushed into AI.”

“The biggest opportunities often emerge in the second wave, not from those who jumped in first, but from those who observed the situation carefully and positioned themselves strategically.”

MARA is betting that the second wave will revolve around AI inferencing, not training.

Training is the process of teaching an AI model how to perform a certain task, while inference is the AI model in action, making its own conclusions without human intervention.

MARA wants the power of the infrastructure for this inferencing, which it believes will “look a whole lot like traditional cloud.”

MARA adds 18,146 Bitcoin

It comes as MARA posted a record $214.4 million in revenue in Q4, smashing the $183.9 million consensus estimate by 16.5%, while the firm stacked an additional 18,146 Bitcoin.

It also recorded $528.3 million in net income, marking a 248% year-on-year increase, while its adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) increased 207% year-on-year to $794.4 million.

MARA also managed to increase the number of Bitcoin blocks won year-on-year by 25% to 703, mining a total of 2,492 Bitcoin — all of which was held under the MARA’s new treasury policy “to retain all BTC” — while the firm purchased an additional 14,574 BTC with cash and proceeds from its zero-coupon convertible senior note offerings.

The mined and purchased Bitcoin brought MARA’s total Bitcoin stash to 44,893 Bitcoin by the end of 2024 — including loaned and collateralized Bitcoin — solidifying its position as the second largest corporate Bitcoin holder behind Strategy, BitBo’s BitcoinTreasuries.NET data shows.

The Bitcoin miner also prioritized boosting its energized hashrate to 53.2 exahashes per second (EH/s) in Q4 — marking a 115% increase from Q4 2023.

A large part of that hashrate increase came from securing 300% more energy capacity in 2024 while expanding to seven Bitcoin mining facilities. The Bitcoin mining firm also launched 25-megawatt micro data center initiatives in Texas and North Dakota to reduce MARA’s reliance on grid power.