Inside France’s strict rules for selling majority stake of its state energy cloud to U.S. bitcoin miner

Finance Share Share this article Copy link X icon X (Twitter) LinkedIn Facebook Email Inside France’s strict rules for selling majority stake of its state energy cloud to U.S. bitcoin miner The French government imposed conditions, including a 10% stake by NJJ Capital, to address national interest concerns. By Francisco Rodrigues , AI Boost | Edited by Aoyon Ashraf Feb 21, 2026, 5:23 p.m. Make us preferred on Google (Shutterstock) What to know : MARA Holdings acquired a 64% stake in Exaion, a high-performance computing infrastructure subsidiary of EDF, for $168 million. The French government imposed conditions, including a 10% stake for NJJ Capital, to address national-interest concerns. The deal required a French investor to step in, which was NJJ, and EDF will keep a minority stake and continue as an Exaion client. France has approved the sale of a majority stake in a key data center unit of state-owned Electricité de France (EDF) to U.S.-based bitcoin miner MARA Holdings Inc., after months of national security review. MARA, headquartered in Florida, is acquiring a 64% stake in Exaion, a subsidiary that operates high-performance computing infrastructure for digital workloads. The deal, first announced in August 2025 , is valued at $168 million. STORY CONTINUES BELOW Don't miss another story. Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today . See all newsletters Sign me up By signing up, you will receive emails about CoinDesk products and you agree to our terms & conditions and privacy policy . The transaction raised concerns in Paris about potential foreign control over digital infrastructure. In response, the French government imposed conditions before signing off. NJJ Capital, an investment firm controlled by telecom billionaire Xavier Niel, will take a 10% stake in Mara France, the local entity handling the acquisition, in exchange for a requirement that a French investor step in. EDF will keep a minority stake and continue as a client of Exaion. Finance Minister Roland Lescure called the outcome a sign that France remains open to international investment while still defending its strategic interests. “In this operation, the State is advancing on two fronts: we are confirming France's attractiveness for international investment, while ensuring uncompromising protection of our strategic interests and our technological sovereignty,” the Minister said. A government statement added that no sensitive EDF data will remain with Exaion following the sale. Exaion’s board of directors will now include representatives from MARA, EDF, and NJJ. Marathon Digital Data Centers France AI Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards . For more information, see CoinDesk's full AI Policy . More For You Specialized AI detects 92% of real-world DeFi exploits By Oliver Knight , AI Boost | Edited by Stephen Alpher 22 hours ago New research claims specialized AI dramatically outperforms general-purpose models at detecting exploited DeFi vulnerabilities. What to know : A purpose-built AI security agent detected vulnerabilities in 92% of 90 exploited DeFi contracts ($96.8 million in exploit value), compared with 34% and $7.5 million for a baseline GPT-5.1-based coding agent running on the same underlying model. The gap came from domain-specific security methodology layered on top of the model, not differences in core AI capability, according to the report. The findings come as prior research from Anthropic and OpenAI shows AI agents can execute end-to-end smart contract exploits at low cost, accelerating concerns that offensive AI capabilities are scaling faster than defensive adoption. Read full story Latest Crypto News Bitcoin price slips after Trump hikes worldwide tariff to 15% from 10% despite Supreme Court decision 41 minutes ago How AI is helping retail traders exploit prediction market 'glitches' to make easy money 2 hours ago Blue Owl liquidity crisis has investors bracing for 2008-style fallout — it could mean bitcoin's next bull run 3 hours ago Small investors are buying bitcoin. For a rally to succeed, the whales need to join in. 9 hours ago SEC makes quiet shift to brokers' stablecoin holdings that may pack big results 19 hours ago Bitcoin shrugs off Trump's new tariffs, nears $68,000 as altcoins lead modest bounce 20 hours ago Top Stories Goldman Sachs, Franklin Templeton, and Nicki Minaj: Inside Trump’s surreal Mar-a-Lago crypto summit Feb 20, 2026 Bitcoin's weekend selloff may be over with CME's 24/7 crypto trading move Feb 20, 2026 U.S. Supreme Court's decision on Trump's tariffs may not rock crypto — yet 22 hours ago Ripple's Brad Garlinghouse says CLARITY bill has '80% chance' of passing by April Feb 20, 2026 Inside the meeting: White House favors some stablecoin rewards, tells banks it's time to move Feb 19, 2026