Why Core Scientific's Partnership With AMD Outweighs a Wider-Than-Expected Loss -- Barrons.com

By Kit Norton

Shares of Core Scientific rose Tuesday after the data-center infrastructure provider announced a partnership with Advanced Micro Devices with the potential for more than $14 billion in contracted revenue. The partnership appeared to outweigh Core Scientific's worse-than-expected second-quarter earnings.

Core Scientific stock rose 4.7% to $21.78 in premarket trading on Tuesday after ending Monday down 8.8%. Shares of AMD weren't as fortunate, falling 4.6% to $472 as the chip stock selloff continued before the opening bell.

Core Scientific early Tuesday reported a second-quarter loss of $3.32 a share, wider than a loss of 4 cents a year ago and wider than Wall Street's expectation for a loss of 6 cents. Revenue grew 109% to $164.2 million, beating the analyst consensus call for $144.8 million, according to FactSet.

Investors, however, were focused on the partnership with AMD, which Core Scientific announced in tandem with its earnings.

AMD secured more than 500 megawatts of Core Scientific data center capacity beginning in 2027, with the ability to expand up to 2.5 gigawatts, to support its artificial-intelligence solutions, according to Core Scientific.

Under the partnership, Core Scientific and AMD also will collaborate on physical infrastructure design and deployment of AMD's graphics processing units, central processing units, and the company's software layers.

Core Scientific said the overall partnership is "anchored" by 15-year agreements for around 530 megawatts across five sites and more than $14 billion of potential base contracted revenue.

As part of the agreement, AMD will also receive market-priced warrants to purchase Core Scientific common stock, subject to certain commercial conditions, according to a press release.

"Core Scientific's extensive portfolio of AI-ready data centers expands access to the infrastructure our customers need to deploy AMD AI solutions at scale. Together, we are helping model builders, cloud providers and enterprises accelerate AI adoption while strengthening the AMD ecosystem," said Mathew Hein, AMD's chief strategy officer of corporate development.

Write to Kit Norton at kit.norton@barrons.com

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

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July 28, 2026 08:32 ET (12:32 GMT)