Gate News message, April 3, one of the world’s largest bitcoin mining companies, MARA (NASDAQ: MARA), laid off about 15% of its employees, affecting full-time employees in multiple departments as well as some contract workers. In an internal memo, CEO Fred Thiel said that this round of layoffs is not purely a financial decision, but part of the company’s strategic shift from a pure-play bitcoin miner to an energy and digital infrastructure company. Earlier this February, MARA completed its majority equity acquisition of EDF’s subsidiary Exaion in France, officially moving into the AI and high-performance computing (HPC) space, and reached an agreement with data center developer Starwood to repurpose about 1 GW of mining infrastructure for AI workloads. In addition, MARA recently sold more than 15,133 BTC (about $1.1 billion) to repay a $1 billion convertible note; its net loss for all of 2025 was $1.3 billion, and its adjusted EBITDA was -$330.8 million. Affected employees will receive one month of paid leave, 13 weeks of severance pay, and full compensation for unused vacation time.