In this Evercore ISI fireside chat, MARA CEO Fred Thiel traces how the company evolved from its legacy origins into the world’s largest Bitcoin miner operating across three continents. He frames MARA’s mission at the nexus of energy and compute: securing the Bitcoin network while acting as a flexible, grid-responsive load. Because MARA can curtail within minutes, its sites help balance peaks without peaker-plant price spikes. The company increasingly taps underused and waste energy — landfill methane, flare gas, agricultural byproducts — and recycles heat into industrial processes, driving down cost and emissions and, in some cases, approaching near-zero energy cost to compute.

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Thiel details MARA’s technology stack and operating model. MARA is vertically integrated, from U.S.-designed ASICs and custom firmware to its own orchestration software, and is rolling out advanced immersion cooling that packs more compute into the same footprint and runs reliably in harsh climates, like in the UAE. That efficiency underpins growth and capital discipline as MARA shifts from an asset-light approach to owning the majority of its capacity through acquisitions, while expanding internationally via joint ventures and government partnerships.

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On milestones and financials, Thiel points to higher energized-hash-rate targets, continued post-halving cost optimization, and diversification beyond traditional mining (technology sales, energy trading, heat reuse). He explains MARA’s treasury approach: holding a significant Bitcoin position now marked-to-market, and notes the stock often trades as a leveraged proxy on BTC. Near-term focus: double-digit exahash growth, more owned capacity, and proof points from energy-harvesting and technology businesses that make MARA more resilient through cycles.