CoreWeave revives bid for Core Scientific causing shares to surge 33%

CoreWeave is negotiating to acquire Bitcoin (BTC) miner-turned-compute host Core Scientific, the Wall Street Journal reported on June 26, citing people familiar with the matter. 

The cloud infrastructure company attempted to acquire the miner for $5.75 per share in June 2024 but withdrew after Core Scientific’s board deemed the price inadequate.

Core Scientific and CoreWeave have not issued public statements on the negotiations.

Market reaction and pricing context

Core Scientific’s CORZ stock was trading at $16.44 as of press time, up 33.7% on the session and more than 3x from last year’s proposal. 

The rally followed a year-to-date slide of about 15% that left the miner trading well below the all-time high it set after emerging from bankruptcy protection in January. 

CoreWeave, which went public in March with a $75 billion capitalization, lists Microsoft as its largest customer, accounting for 62% of 2024 revenue, and rents Nvidia GPUs to corporate clients that include Meta Platforms and IBM.

Executives at Core Scientific dismissed last year’s $1 billion overture as “unsolicited” and below intrinsic value, then signed 12-year hosting agreements that commit the miner to deliver 200 megawatts (MW) of power for CoreWeave’s high-performance-computing clusters.

Board members stated at the time that the arrangement would generate approximately $3.5 billion in cumulative revenue and help diversify income away from block subsidies after the April 2024 Bitcoin halving.

Core Scientific already hosts 16 MW of CoreWeave GPUs at its Austin campus, and plans staged expansions across several sites in Texas and Oklahoma.

Negotiation timetable and possible premium

The parties allegedly aim to finalize terms within weeks if talks stay on track, the sources said. Yet, neither side disclosed price parameters. 

Core Scientific’s rapid pivot toward AI infrastructure, combined with a power-constrained data-center market, could justify a premium well above the miner’s undisturbed value, bankers following the situation noted. 

CoreWeave CEO Mike Intrator seeks to expand capacity to meet the cloud-AI demand that exceeds current inventory across hyperscale providers.

Core Scientific controls about 724 megawatts of contracted power across its US footprint and ranks among North America’s top owners of immersion-cooled mining rigs. 

The miner’s ability to repurpose part of that load for GPU computing aligns with CoreWeave’s push to secure low-cost electricity and ready-built shells, avoiding multiyear greenfield construction.

If negotiations succeed, CoreWeave will absorb a fleet of Bitmain S21-class miners and a pipeline of brownfield sites that can flip to GPU racks. Core Scientific shareholders would receive cash or stock at a yet-to-be-determined ratio.

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