U.S. Bitcoin mining company Core Scientific filed for bankruptcy in January this year, but since its restructuring and return to the stock market, the company has been committed to transforming into an artificial intelligence business, and its stock price has risen by 140%.
At the same time, Core Scientific announced on Tuesday an expanded partnership with Nvidia-backed startup CoreWeave, reaching a $6.7 billion agreement. CoreWeave is one of the main chip technology providers for running AI models. Core Scientific will provide an additional 112 megawatts of computing infrastructure to support CoreWeave's operations. The news stimulated Core Scientific's stock to surge by 18.8% during Tuesday's trading, closing at $9.76.
Core Scientific stated that the agreement will bring an additional $2 billion in revenue to the company over 12 years, with previous agreements expected to bring in $4.7 billion in revenue. In total, the company plans to provide approximately 382 megawatts of infrastructure to CoreWeave by the first half of 2026 and may add 118 megawatts of power at other Core Scientific sites.
These sites are expected to begin modifications in the second half of 2024 and be fully operational by the first half of 2026.
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"Since our relisting in January, we have witnessed tremendous growth and have focused on developing top-tier digital infrastructure," Core Scientific CEO Adam Sullivan said in a media interview. "This infrastructure advantage allows us to diversify our revenue and reallocate certain facilities to address the increasing demand for AI technology."
It's not just Core Scientific; over the past few months, publicly traded Bitcoin mining companies have been shifting towards AI infrastructure businesses, possibly because mining became less profitable after Bitcoin's halving in April. These companies have already invested significant resources in building data centers across the United States, which can be repurposed to serve a new category of clients.
However, some analyses point out that transitioning to AI is not as simple as repurposing existing mining infrastructure and machines, as the demands are different and the requirements for data networks are different.
Analysts at Needham wrote in a May report that almost all of the mining companies' current infrastructure needs to be "torn down and rebuilt to accommodate high-performance computing (HPC)."
Core Scientific's management previously attended a closed-door roundtable on mining with former President Trump, who has recently joined the discussion on the integration of Bitcoin mining and AI.
According to a report by JPMorgan, benefiting from the AI transformation, as of June 15, the total market value of the 14 major U.S.-listed Bitcoin mining companies tracked reached a historical high of $22.8 billion.For instance, the mining company Bit Digital currently estimates that 27% of its revenue comes from AI. In June, the company stated that it had reached an agreement with a client to supply Nvidia's GPUs at a data center in Iceland, which is expected to generate $92 million in annual revenue. Some of the funds to pay for the GPUs come from the sale of part of its cryptocurrency holdings.
Additionally, Hut 8, based in Miami, announced in June that it had raised $150 million in debt from private equity firm Coatue to help build its AI data center.
Core Scientific previously fell by 7.5% due to the global stock market crash affecting cryptocurrency and AI companies. Analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald said in a report that they view this sell-off as a buying opportunity for publicly traded mining stocks.
In June of this year, CoreWeave proposed to acquire Core Scientific for $1.02 billion, and shortly thereafter, the two parties reached a preliminary agreement. Core Scientific rejected this offer. Core Scientific is currently valued at approximately $1.5 billion.
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