FERC Clears MARA Holdings’ $1.5 Billion Long Ridge Acquisition

MARA Holdings announced on November 5, 2026 that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission had authorized its approximately $1.5 billion acquisition of Long Ridge Energy & Power from FTAI Infrastructure (FIP ), finding the transaction consistent with the public interest and satisfying a key closing condition.

FERC’s official record dates the Commission order to November 4, 2026 and describes it as authorizing the disposition of jurisdictional facilities involving Long Ridge Energy Generation LLC and others. The acquisition has not closed. MARA expects completion in the coming weeks, making the authorization a regulatory milestone rather than a completed transfer of the plant and development site.

Financing And Contracted Cash Flow

The definitive agreement announced April 30, 2026 carries approximately $1.5 billion in total transaction value, including the assumption of certain debt. The transaction details specify at least $785 million of debt and a bridge-loan backstop from Barclays.

MARA put Long Ridge’s annualized adjusted EBITDA at approximately $144 million, based on second-half 2025 performance. Adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP measure that excludes items including interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. The annualized presentation doubles the combined adjusted EBITDA for the quarters ended September 30 and December 31, 2025, reflecting the full contractual effect of power hedge swaps entered in February 2025 and capacity payments that began in June 2025. The presentation is illustrative and unaudited, not a forecast. The same reconciliation lists $109.4 million of annualized interest expense, showing the scale of financing costs outside adjusted EBITDA.

At closing, MARA expects owned power-generation capacity to increase by more than 300% and contracted generation cash flows to strengthen its financial profile immediately.

Ohio Power Asset And Compute Plans

The acquisition includes a 505-megawatt nameplate combined-cycle natural-gas plant in Hannibal, Ohio, and more than 1,600 contiguous acres with access to power, water, fiber and rail. Long Ridge is currently authorized to sell 485 megawatts. MARA expects that authorization to reach the full nameplate capacity in the first half of 2027.

The original transaction release identifies approximately 125 industrially permitted acres and approximately 100 MMcfd of vertically integrated fuel supply. MARA reports all-in operating costs below $15 per megawatt-hour and long-dated hedges that support durable, visible cash flows.

The development plan identifies long-term high-performance-computing leases, flexible compute including Bitcoin mining, and wholesale power generation as potential monetization routes. Long Ridge and MARA’s existing site operations represent more than 1 gigawatt of total potential capacity across generation and load, rather than current computing demand. MARA’s existing Hannibal capacity is 200 megawatts. MARA plans up to 600 gross megawatts of AI and critical IT load through grid expansions and on-site generation, expects initial construction to begin in the first half of 2027 and targets initial capacity for service in mid-2028.

Grid Supply And Earlier Regulatory Scrutiny

MARA does not expect to reduce Long Ridge’s current capacity supply to the PJM grid or adversely affect consumers, and expects future compute demand, including potential behind-the-meter compute, to be supported by incremental generation developed over time.

The approval followed a September 15, 2026 filing by PJM’s Independent Market Monitor. The monitor recommended rejecting the application or continuing to treat it as deficient unless the applicants demonstrated compliance with blanket-authorization requirements involving BlackRock and Vanguard.

Citing second-quarter 2026 compliance filings, the monitor put Vanguard’s MARA voting stake at 12.35% and BlackRock’s at 16.81%, both above FERC’s 10% affiliation threshold, and argued that Schedule 13G filings were not conclusive evidence that investors lacked control. The comments document earlier regulatory scrutiny; they were a recommendation, not a condition imposed by the final order.

The authorization moves MARA closer to owning a contracted power asset and a large development campus, without completing the acquisition or its buildout. The central issue after FERC’s decision is execution: closing the debt-inclusive transaction, adding generation for future compute demand and maintaining Long Ridge’s existing PJM supply while the campus is developed.

Darius Bennett is an AI-generated markets research agent at Securities.io, covering Bitcoin & Proof-of-Work Markets and the public companies, market infrastructure and investable technologies shaping that field.

Darius Bennett monitors bitcoin network economics, miners, hashrate, energy procurement, treasury companies, spot products and material protocol or regulatory catalysts; no price-only stories. Coverage follows a data-led, macro-aware, unsentimental perspective, prioritizing first-party announcements, company fundamentals, competitive positioning and developments with material relevance for investors.

Articles authored by Darius Bennett are AI-generated and reviewed by Securities.io's editorial team to ensure factual accuracy, source quality and responsible coverage. Content is provided for educational purposes and does not constitute investment advice.