CoreWeave takeover chatter spikes Core Scientific stock by 35%

Core Scientific’s stock price shot up 35% on Thursday after The Wall Street Journal reported that CoreWeave is in talks to buy the crypto miner.

The news caused a temporary halt in trading, but the rally picked up again once the pause ended. This was Core Scientific’s second-biggest trading day since its return to the Nasdaq in January 2024, after it came out of bankruptcy.

The sharpest jump the company ever saw was last June, when it climbed 40% in a single session after announcing a major AI expansion deal with CoreWeave. The new acquisition talks are tied to that same relationship, which has turned into a billion-dollar partnership over time.

The companies signed a series of 12-year contracts last summer worth $10.2 billion, with Core Scientific committed to delivering 590 megawatts of AI-ready infrastructure by early 2026.

CoreWeave’s 2024 bid rejected, deal now being revisited

The Journal report said the buyout deal could be finalized in the next few weeks, unless something derails it. If agreed, the acquisition would deepen CoreWeave’s involvement with Core Scientific beyond just contracts. It also highlights how the AI boom has changed the game for miners.

Core Scientific was once just a bitcoin miner struggling to stay afloat. Now it’s sitting on close to $5 billion in market value, five times higher than when CoreWeave first tried to buy it.

In 2024, CoreWeave made a $5.75 per share offer for Core Scientific. At the time, that offer put the company’s value at just over $1 billion. But Core Scientific turned it down, saying the bid undervalued the business and that it preferred to focus on its existing deals. With its stock now trading well above that old offer, the tables have turned.

The partnership between the two has grown stronger since that rejected proposal. They’ve been working together for years, but the 12-year contract signed in June 2023 formalized things. Core Scientific agreed to supply hundreds of megawatts of hosting power to support CoreWeave’s compute-heavy AI infrastructure.

Bitcoin miners rush into AI as space and power run low

Core Scientific’s shift into AI isn’t unique. Many crypto mining companies are now trying to retool their data centers to meet demand from AI firms. But analysts have warned that AI infrastructure often needs full-scale builds, not just old mining rigs converted into something else. It’s not always a simple flip.

Still, companies like Core Scientific are trying to cash in while demand is high. With limited data-center space and rising competition for electricity, timing is everything. Being able to deliver infrastructure quickly has become more important than mining blocks.

Even so, CoreWeave’s share price fell by about 1% on Thursday. That’s not a massive drop, but it’s a sign the market isn’t reacting the same way on both sides of this possible deal.

Core Scientific, meanwhile, has made its turnaround story all about AI. Since leaving bankruptcy in early 2024, it’s shifted large portions of its operations to hosting high-performance workloads instead of mining bitcoin full-time. That move has put it ahead of many competitors who are still trying to adapt.

The company is now one of several crypto miners competing for AI clients, looking to make use of every available megawatt of energy and every square foot of hosting space. With the AI race heating up and real estate for GPUs running thin, whoever controls the infrastructure gets the money. And Core Scientific, thanks to its 12-year agreement with CoreWeave, has already locked in its seat at the table.