CoreWeave spends 9 billion USD on the acquisition of Core Scientific, controlling the lifeblood of AI Computing Power.

According to a report by Bloomberg, AI cloud service provider CoreWeave announced an acquisition of data center operator Core Scientific for $9 billion in an all-stock deal. This move aims to directly control the key physical assets that support the artificial intelligence (AI) boom — data centers.

CoreWeave will acquire over 1 gigawatt (GW) of data center computing power capacity from Core Scientific’s locations across the United States, most of which has already been contracted to serve its clients for AI model training, deployment, and usage.

Strategic Drive: Reducing Costs and Increasing Efficiency to Ensure Growth

• CoreWeave CEO Michael Intrator stated that vertical integration of the supply chain will eliminate leasing costs, reduce project financing costs, and “ensure long-term growth.”
• Intrator emphasized that the company’s strategy is to “fully engage in the AI technology stack” and has previously acquired the AI developer platform Weights and Biases.
• After the acquisition is completed, CoreWeave expects to achieve annual cost savings of $500 million by the end of 2027 (currently needing to pay hosting fees to Core Scientific).
• The AI computing power arms race has heated up, with cloud service providers competing to build ultra-large-scale data centers (such as the recent 4.5GW capacity agreement between OpenAI and Oracle).

Transaction Details and Market Reaction

• The acquisition values Core Scientific’s stock at $20.40 per share, a 66% premium over the closing price of $12.30 on June 25 (before the rumored deal).
• After the announcement (July 8, New York time afternoon), CoreWeave’s stock price fell by 3.4%, and Core Scientific’s stock price plummeted by 17% to $14.88, significantly below the acquisition offer.
• Analyst’s View: The decline in stock price reflects investors’ doubts about the value of CoreWeave shares (in case of a cash transaction or otherwise).
• Transaction Process: Expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2025, pending regulatory approval. Upon completion, Core Scientific shareholders will hold less than 10% in the new company.

Core Scientific: From Bitcoin Mining Farm to AI Computing Hub

• Core Scientific was once a top Bitcoin mining company in the United States, operating large data centers and using high-energy-consuming mining machines.
• Experienced bankruptcy restructuring during the crypto winter, successfully relisted in January last year (2023) with the bitcoin price rebound.
• Utilizing its existing data center capacity and large-scale power resources, successfully transformed into the primary AI infrastructure provider for CoreWeave.
• This acquisition will allow CoreWeave to gain approximately 1.3 gigawatts (GW) of power resources from Core Scientific’s data centers (1 gigawatt can power about 750,000 American households, far exceeding the conventional capacity of a single data center).
• This transaction marks a typical case of a large Bitcoin mining company successfully transforming into AI data center services.

Historical Origins

• Last year, CoreWeave made an offer of approximately $1 billion to acquire Core Scientific but was unsuccessful. However, both parties signed a 12-year contract, with Core Scientific providing 200 megawatts (MW) of infrastructure to support CoreWeave’s operations.