Shares of MARA Holdings rose on Thursday after the company announced the sale of $1.1 billion worth of Bitcoin to support its expansion into artificial-intelligence computing.

MARA will use the proceeds from the sale to repurchase $1 billion in convertible bonds due in 2030 and 2031. The privately negotiated buyback agreements are expected to close on March 30 and March 31, respectively.

"This transaction enhances financial flexibility and increases strategic optionality as we expand beyond pure-play bitcoin mining into digital energy and AI/[high-performance computing] infrastructure," MARA CEO Fred Thiel.

MARA stock jumped 3.6% to $8.58, having climbed as much as 13% earlier in the session.

Investors appear pleased with the Bitcoin miner's decision to both reduce its exposure to crypto and shore up its balance sheet for its push into AI data centers.

MARA entered March with 53,822 Bitcoin, making it the second-largest corporate holder of the flagship crypto behind Strategy, according to tracking data from BitcoinTreasuries.net. The sale of some 15,000 Bitcoin reduces its holdings by about 28%.

With Bitcoin prices down 45% from their October all-time highs, MARA isn't selling at peak value. But investors are increasingly unwilling to fund companies focused on hoarding crypto, a tactic popularized by Strategy. Some of these so-called digital asset treasuries are now selling their holdings and pivoting to different business models.

Investors are, however, rewarding Bitcoin miners who repurpose their power and computing capacity for AI. Stocks like IREN, Cipher Digital, and TeraWulf are all up around 500% over the last 12 months.

MARA's pivot has been a more difficult sell because it has kept its exposure to Bitcoin mining, which has become much less profitable as the value of miners' rewards — actual Bitcoin tokens — has declined. The stock is down 39% in the past 12 months as of Wednesday's close.

What the company does have is an abundance of energy and space. MARA operates 18 data centers across four continents with 1.9 gigawatts of total capacity, according to the company's annual report earlier this month. It announced a partnership with Starwood Digital Ventures last month to develop AI data centers.

Wall Street now wants to see deals with data-center tenants.

"Execution remains the key gating factor," Clear Street analyst Brian Dobson wrote about the Starwood deal. "Tenant commitments, development timelines, and project-level return thresholds will ultimately determine value creation."

Write to Nate Wolf at nate.wolf@barrons.com

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