Marathon Puts AI on Horizon with New Board Directors

Marathon Digital appears to be exploring AI initiatives as the bitcoin mining giant appoints two board directors with expertise in the field.

On Thursday, the company announced the appointment of Janet George and Barbara Humpton, replacing Kevin DeNuccio and Said Ouissal, who stepped down on September 1 as part of a planned transition.

Marathon highlighted George and Humpton’s leadership and expertise in “AI, data centers, and energy,” as well as their proven track records in driving innovation and growth across complex industries.

George previously served as Corporate Vice President and General Manager of Data Center & Artificial Intelligence at Intel, while Humpton is currently the President and CEO of Siemens USA.

“Given the increasing relevance of MARA’s digital infrastructure technology and our AI data center co-location strategy to hyperscalers and AI data center operators, we recognized the need to bring AI and AI data center-specific expertise onto our board,” said Marathon’s chairman and CEO Fred Thiel.

While Marathon hasn’t yet announced concrete plans for AI data center expansion, the board reshuffle coincides with growing investor interest in bitcoin mining companies that possess the infrastructure capacity for AI colocation.

Core Scientific, a major competitor to Marathon, has become the second-largest public mining firm by market capitalization in eight months following its emergence from bankruptcy protection. This surge is attributed to its stock price rally since June, fueled by a series of announcements of AI hosting deals with CoreWeave.