MARA Holdings is turning a chunk of Gulf Coast ranchland into a future home for power-hungry computers, after agreeing to buy more than 1,200 acres in Matagorda County from HIF Global. The property, about 90 miles southwest of Houston near Bay City, is being pitched as a potential powered campus for data and crypto operations, including Bitcoin mining. HIF says it will keep pursuing its sustainable-fuels projects at other locations while retaining a stake in the Matagorda project.
Deal details and timeline
According to MARA, the site spans more than 1,200 acres and is expected to provide access to up to an initial 1 gigawatt of grid capacity by October 2027 and up to 2 GW by April 2028. MARA plans to develop the property with Starwood Digital Ventures as a large-scale digital-infrastructure campus that could host high-performance computing tenants and flexible compute operations. “This transaction advances our strategy of securing strategically located infrastructure assets capable of supporting high-performance compute and bitcoin workloads,” MARA’s chairman and CEO Fred Thiel said in the company announcement.
HIF's pivot and local pitch
HIF Global, which has been developing e-fuels projects in the region, said the sale lets it unlock value from existing infrastructure while staying involved in the site’s future; HIF will retain a minority ownership interest, according to HIF Global. The company also said it has issued a Notice to Proceed for construction of a switchyard to connect the site to the grid and expects phased campus construction to begin in 2026, pending regulatory approvals. HIF is framing the move as a way to support local jobs while continuing its broader advanced-fuels strategy.
Local reaction and energy context
The sale drops into an ongoing debate in Matagorda County over whether rural communities should host large, energy-intensive projects, with residents and advocacy groups questioning water use, grid impacts and local control, as reported by the Houston Chronicle. MARA’s push into powered land follows other moves to secure energy and develop campus-scale sites, including its April agreement to acquire Long Ridge Energy & Power, as part of a strategy to pair compute demand with control of power capacity. That combination of land, power and data interests is helping draw attention from county officials and statewide policymakers to the Matagorda transaction.
What to watch next
Key near-term milestones include grid interconnection approvals, local permitting and whether MARA signs leases with high-performance computing tenants that justify the projected power build-out. Local business reporting first spotlighted the transaction after the companies announced the deal; the Houston Business Journal published early coverage on July 9. Regulators, residents and investors will be watching how quickly infrastructure work and regulatory sign-offs move the plan from announcement to construction.
