Core Scientific Rises as Bitcoin Booms and CoreWeave Deal Fails, Focus Shifts to AI Data Centers

Stock Price (Oct 30, 2025): ~$20.10 (NASDAQ: CORZ), after a volatile day (initially +2.25% then –3.75%) ^[1]. Shares have gained strongly this year.
CoreWeave Deal Rejected: On Oct. 30, 2025, CORZ shareholders voted against the proposed $9 billion all-stock acquisition by AI-cloud firm CoreWeave ^[2] ^[3]. Core Scientific immediately terminated the merger agreement ^[4].
July Merger Terms: The deal would have given CoreWeave 0.1235 CoreWeave shares per CORZ share (valuing CORZ at $20.40/share) ^[5] ^[6]. CoreScientific’s board had urged approval, citing cost savings and synergies ^[7].
Q3 2025 Results: Revenue fell to $81.1M (from $95.4M a year ago) ^[8], as Bitcoin mined dropped 55% (offset by +88% BTC price) ^[9]. Gross profit was $3.9M (vs. $–0.2M) and net loss narrowed to $146.7M (vs. $455.3M) ^[10]. Capital spending was $244.5M, largely on new data-center builds (CoreWeave funded $196.4M of this) ^[11]. Liquidity (cash + BTC) stood at $694.8M ^[12].
Business Overview: Core Scientific is “one of the largest owners and operators of high-powered digital infrastructure for Bitcoin mining and hosting services in North America” ^[13]. It runs ~173,000 miners across 1.2 GW of dedicated sites. The company also provides high-density colocation (data-center hosting) for third parties, particularly in AI/HPC workloads ^[14] ^[15]. CEO Adam Sullivan says Core Scientific’s facilities will be retooled as application-specific data centers to support future computing demands ^[16] ^[17].
Key Partnerships: CoreWeave is a major partner – under a 2024 agreement Core Scientific will allocate ~270 MW of power to host CoreWeave’s Nvidia GPUs for AI compute by late 2025 ^[18]. CoreWeave funds most capital upgrades (e.g. $105M investment credited against future hosting fees) ^[19]. This partnership drives long-term revenue (projected +$1.225B over 12 years) ^[20] ^[21].
Crypto & AI Trends: Bitcoin recently hit record highs (~$125,000 in early Oct.) ^[22], lifting miner revenue. At the same time, many crypto miners are diversifying into AI/data-center projects ^[23]. For example, CleanSpark jumped 13% after unveiling new AI data centers ^[24], and Marathon, Riot, Hut 8, Cipher, and others announced “AI pivots” to repurpose mining sites for GPU computing ^[25]. These trends have sparked rallies in mining stocks.
Analyst Views: Institutional investors see upside if CORZ stays independent. ISS (proxy adviser) recently noted “the market believes the company’s value is greater than the offer” ^[26] and recommended voting no on the CoreWeave deal. Two Seas Capital (6% owner) echoed that it “materially undervalues” Core Scientific. Nasdaq reports analysts’ average 12-month price target around $21.50 ^[27], implying modest upside.
Leadership: In March 2025 Core Scientific named veteran banker Jim Nygaard as CFO (succeeding Denise Sterling) to help scale its growth ^[28]. (Founder Adam Sullivan remains CEO.)

Core Scientific’s stock found itself in focus after the dramatic breakdown of a planned merger. On Oct. 30 shareholders rejected CoreWeave’s $9 billion all-stock bid ^[29] ^[30]. Core Scientific said in a press release that it “did not receive the requisite number of votes” and therefore terminated the merger agreement, effective immediately ^[31]. The result came after weeks of proxy battles: major holder Two Seas Capital (with ~6% of CORZ) led a campaign saying the deal “materially undervalues” Core Scientific ^[32], and ISS likewise urged a no-vote, reasoning that Core Scientific “has performed well on its own” and can keep growing independently ^[33].

After the vote, CoreWeave CEO Michael Intrator conceded the outcome. He told CNBC that the $9B offer was “a nice to have, not a need to have” and said CoreWeave would not sweeten its bid ^[34]. In a public statement, Intrator said “we respect the views of Core Scientific stockholders and look forward to continuing our commercial partnership” ^[35], emphasizing that CoreWeave’s cloud/data strategy remains unchanged. Core Scientific’s management welcomed the clarity. CEO Adam Sullivan reiterated that the company is focused on its own path. “We intend to continue to transform and expand our hosting business and our earnings power as we provide valuable capacity to the dynamic world of AI compute,” Sullivan said, noting Core Scientific will “reinforce our strong bitcoin mining franchise” ^[36].

Business & Partnerships: Core Scientific has established itself as a major crypto miner turned digital infrastructure provider. The company deploys a large fleet of Bitcoin “miners” at purpose-built data centers across Texas, North Carolina, North Dakota, Georgia, Kentucky, Oklahoma and Alabama ^[37]. This generates most revenue through self-mining (Bitcoin earned to hold or sell). In parallel, Core Scientific operates hosting services (colocation) for third parties, especially for high-density computing. A key client is CoreWeave: under contracts signed in 2024, Core Scientific will allocate roughly 270 MW of power for CoreWeave’s NVIDIA GPU clusters (with an option to expand to ~500 MW) ^[38] ^[39]. Significantly, CoreWeave is footing most of the capital bill: Sullivan notes that all data-center upgrades “will be funded by CoreWeave” ^[40]. In return, Core Scientific expects multi-year fixed revenue (estimated +$1.225 billion over 12 years from the expanded deal) and the opportunity to build future AI-specialized data centers (ASDCs) ^[41] ^[42]. Sullivan explained that as older data centers are ill-suited for dense AI chips, “Core Scientific is well positioned to design for the future and build application-specific data centers… for clients such as CoreWeave” ^[43]. In short, Core Scientific is evolving from pure crypto mining into a hybrid crypto-miner and AI infrastructure play.

Q3 2025 Earnings: Core Scientific’s latest financial report (released Oct. 24) painted a mixed picture. Revenue dropped to $81.1 million in Q3 (versus $95.4M a year earlier) ^[44]. This was driven by a 55% plunge in Bitcoin mined (due to previous halving and less operating capacity), only partly offset by an 88% higher average BTC price ^[45]. Hosted-mining revenue also fell (as the company shifted customer rigs into paid colocation), though high-density colocation revenue rose (from $10.3M to $15.0M YoY). Gross profit turned slightly positive ($3.9M vs. a $0.2M loss prior year) ^[46]. Importantly, the GAAP net loss was $146.7M, much smaller than the $455M loss in Q3 2024 ^[47]. (Last year’s result included a massive ~$408M non-cash stock-adjustment; this quarter’s write-downs were far lower.) Operating costs did rise, so adjusted EBITDA was slightly negative (–$2.4M). Core Scientific burned heavy cash on expansion: Q3 capital expenditures were $244.5M, mostly to build out new data-center infrastructure ^[48]. Of that, $196.4M was provided by CoreWeave under the existing colocation contracts ^[49]. At quarter’s end, Core Scientific had about $453M in cash plus $241M in Bitcoin on the balance sheet ^[50].

Investors say these results justify optimism. ISS observed that Core Scientific’s business fundamentals are solid: the company has recovered from Chapter 11 restructuring and is deploying state-of-the-art facilities. ISS wrote that “the company’s value is greater than the offer,” implying shareholders would be better off with the independent path ^[51]. Two Seas Capital similarly argued there is “significant upside potential” if the merger is scuttled ^[52]. Nasdaq’s data show analysts have become more bullish: the average 12-month price target was recently raised to $21.49 (≈13% above prior targets) ^[53]. (Analysts’ targets now range from about $15 to $31 per share ^[54].)

Cryptocurrency Sector Trends: Core Scientific’s outlook is heavily tied to Bitcoin and the broader mining industry. Bitcoin’s price has exploded in 2025 – breaking all-time records. Reuters reports Bitcoin topped $125,000 in early October ^[55], as a friendly U.S. regulatory environment and institutional demand lifted the market. At those levels, every BTC mined is extremely valuable. Other public mining stocks have boomed: Marathon Digital, Riot Platforms and others saw huge mining profits in Q2/Q3 (Riot reported record production and profit from selling BTC at ~$115K in late summer) ^[56]. The sector rally also reflects a diversification trend: many miners are building or repurposing data centers for AI/HPC computing. For example, CleanSpark shares jumped 13% on news it will build new AI-focused data centers alongside its Bitcoin mines ^[57]. Marathon and Riot are rolling out large GPU hosting projects, citing the need to pivot as crypto rewards decline ^[58] ^[59]. Analysts say investors now prize crypto companies that can serve both Bitcoin and AI markets.

Outlook: With the CoreWeave deal off the table, Core Scientific will continue operating as an independent public company. Management emphasizes that the company has ample capital (nearly $700M liquidity), cutting-edge facilities and signed contracts with major AI and mining clients. “We are a hosting provider of choice,” CEO Sullivan said at an investor event, highlighting the firm’s flexibility and engineering team ^[60]. The company has also strengthened its leadership: veteran banker Jim Nygaard joined as CFO in March 2025 to help guide growth ^[61].

Market observers note, however, that volatility in crypto and AI sectors could swing the stock. Bitcoin prices could retrace, and competition in data centers is intense. On the other hand, if Bitcoin remains strong and demand for AI compute holds up, Core Scientific stands to benefit as a niche provider. As one proxy report put it, the market now seems to believe “the company’s value is greater than the offer” that had been put on the table ^[62]. For now, analysts and investors will watch Core Scientific’s own earnings execution and the evolving AI/data-center market closely.

Sources: Core Scientific and CoreWeave press releases and SEC filings; market news from Reuters, CoinDesk and DatacenterDynamics ^[63] ^[64] ^[65] ^[66]; industry analyses and stock commentary ^[67] ^[68]; company earnings report ^[69] ^[70]; and expert/analyst reports ^[71] ^[72].

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Core Scientific Rises as Bitcoin Booms and CoreWeave Deal Fails, Focus Shifts to AI Data Centers

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