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Core Scientific shareholders said no to $9 billion. Turns out, they may have been right.
The Bitcoin mining and data center company saw its investors reject an all-stock acquisition by CoreWeave last October, a deal that would have valued the firm at roughly $9B and paid 0.1235 CoreWeave shares for each CORZ share. Seven months later, Core Scientific announced a sweeping infrastructure partnership with AMD that makes the rejected buyout look like it would have sold the company short.
The deal that died
CoreWeave first pitched the acquisition in July 2025, framing it as a natural consolidation play in the AI infrastructure space. The all-stock structure meant CORZ holders would be taking on CoreWeave’s risk profile rather than receiving cash. Questions about valuation and the acquisition process piled up. By October 30, 2025, the deal was dead.
AMD steps in with a bigger vision
On July 28, 2026, Core Scientific and AMD announced a partnership to deliver over 500 megawatts of AI-ready data center capacity starting in 2027, with the potential to scale up to 2.5 gigawatts.
The deal goes beyond a simple landlord-tenant arrangement. AMD and Core Scientific will collaborate on deploying AMD’s technologies across these facilities, turning them into purpose-built environments for AI and high-performance computing workloads. The partnership also includes a warrant component, giving AMD the option to purchase Core Scientific common stock at market prices under specific commercial conditions.
From mining rigs to AI racks
Core Scientific’s transformation has been one of the more dramatic pivots in the crypto-adjacent space. The company once derived the bulk of its revenue from Bitcoin mining, operating one of the largest mining fleets in North America before filing for bankruptcy in late 2022.
Post-emergence, the company began repositioning its massive portfolio of data center infrastructure toward high-density colocation, the kind of power-hungry, cooling-intensive facility space that AI model training and inference demand. Today, most of Core Scientific’s revenue comes from these colocation services rather than from mining digital assets.
The company still maintains some Bitcoin mining operations, but they’ve become a secondary business line. Core Scientific reported a notable net loss in Q2 2026.
What the AMD deal means for investors
By partnering with AMD rather than selling to CoreWeave, Core Scientific retains optionality. The 500-megawatt initial commitment, with a pathway to 2.5 gigawatts, suggests AMD views this as a long-term relationship, not a one-off deal.
The warrant structure adds another layer. If AMD exercises those warrants as the commercial relationship deepens, it would become a significant shareholder in Core Scientific, further cementing the alignment between the two companies.
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