Core Scientific revenue doubles in Q2 as AI colocation becomes its biggest business

Core Scientific just posted Q2 2026 numbers that tell two very different stories depending on which line item you’re reading. Total revenue hit $164.2 million, more than doubling the $78.6 million it reported in Q2 2025. But a $1.155 billion net loss, driven by a non-cash remeasurement of warrant and contingent value right liabilities, made the income statement look like a horror movie.

That massive loss is essentially an accounting artifact tied to Core Scientific’s rising stock price, not an operational blowup. Strip out the non-cash noise, and the underlying business is accelerating fast, powered almost entirely by AI colocation rather than the Bitcoin mining operation that originally defined the company.

AI colocation is now the main act

Colocation services generated $136.7 million in Q2, up sharply from $77.5 million in Q1 2026. That single segment now accounts for roughly 83% of total revenue.

By mid-July 2026, Core Scientific was billing for 437 MW of leased customer power capacity, up from 395 MW during Q2. Total leased customer power capacity sits at approximately 1.1 GW, which the company says carries potential revenue exceeding $24 billion over the life of its contracts.

Adjusted EBITDA rose to $41.1 million for the quarter. The company spent $797.5 million in capital expenditures during Q2 alone. Liquidity remains at $1.819 billion, including cash and digital assets.

The AMD deal changes the math

On July 28, Core Scientific announced a strategic partnership with AMD that includes 15-year agreements covering approximately 530 MW across five sites, with potential base revenue exceeding $14 billion. The AMD arrangement could eventually scale to 2.5 GW of capacity.

AMD gets purpose-built infrastructure for its AI workloads without having to build and operate data centers itself. Core Scientific gets a blue-chip anchor tenant and a 15-year revenue commitment.

What the net loss actually means

The $1.155 billion net loss stems from the remeasurement of warrant and contingent value right liabilities. As Core Scientific’s stock price rises, the theoretical value of outstanding warrants and CVRs increases, and under accounting rules that increase gets booked as a loss on the income statement even though no cash leaves the building. The same dynamic produced a $936.8 million loss in Q2 2025.

What this means for investors

Core Scientific emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in early 2024. Now it’s signing multi-decade deals with AMD and posting revenue growth driven by colocation services that account for 83% of total revenue.

The sequential revenue jump from $115.2 million in Q1 to $164.2 million in Q2 reflects the colocation ramp. With 437 MW currently billing and a pipeline that could reach 2.5 GW through the AMD relationship alone, the company’s $797.5 million quarterly capex outlay represents a concentrated bet on sustained AI infrastructure demand. Every megawatt allocated to AI hosting is a megawatt that isn’t hashing Bitcoin blocks, a fundamental change for investors who bought CORZ as a Bitcoin proxy.

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