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After bankruptcy, this Bitcoin miner returns with the AI ​​boom. Its stock price soars as it expands cooperation with Nvidia's "son"

2024-08-07

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Core Scientific, an American bitcoin mining company, went bankrupt in January this year, but since its reorganization and return to the stock market, the company has been committed to transforming its artificial intelligence business and its stock price has risen by 140%.

Meanwhile, Core Scientific announced on Tuesday that it has expanded its partnership with Nvidia-backed startup CoreWeave to reach 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 prompted Core Scientific to surge 18.8% to $9.76 during trading on Tuesday.


Core Scientific said the agreement will generate an additional $2 billion in revenue for the company over 12 years.The previous agreement is expected to bring in $4.7 billion in revenue. In total, the company plans to provide CoreWeave with approximately 382 megawatts of infrastructure by the first half of 2026, with the potential to add an additional 118 megawatts at other Core Scientific sites.

The stations are expected to begin modifications in the second half of 2024 and be fully operational in the first half of 2026.

"Since we re-entered the public market in January, we have seen tremendous growth and focused on developing a best-in-class digital infrastructure," Adam Sullivan, CEO of Core Scientific, said in an interview with the media. "This infrastructure advantage enables us to diversify our revenue and reallocate certain facilities to address the growing demand for AI technology."

Core Scientific isn’t the only company. Publicly traded bitcoin mining companies have been shifting into the AI ​​infrastructure business over the past few months, likely because mining has become less profitable after the bitcoin halving in April. These companies have spent a lot of resources building data centers across the U.S. that can be repurposed to serve a whole new class of customers.

But some analysts point out that converting to AI is not as simple as repurposing existing mining infrastructure and machines, because the needs are different and the demands on data networks are also different.

Almost all of mining companies’ current infrastructure will need to be “ripped down and rebuilt to accommodate high-performance computing (HPC),” Needham analysts wrote in a May report.

Core Scientific management has previously participated in a closed-door roundtable on the mining industry with former President Trump, who recently joined the discussion on the integration of Bitcoin mining and AI.

According to a report by JPMorgan Chase, benefiting from AI transformation, as of June 15, the total market value of the 14 major US-listed Bitcoin mining companies tracked reached a historical high of US$22.8 billion.

For example, mining company Bit Digital currently estimates that 27% of its revenue comes from AI. The company said in June that it had reached an agreement with a customer to supply Nvidia GPUs in its data center in Iceland, which it expects to generate $92 million in revenue annually. Part of the money to pay for the GPUs comes from selling some of its cryptocurrency holdings.

Separately, Miami-based Hut 8 said in June it had raised $150 million in debt from private equity firm Coatue to help build out its AI data center.

Core Scientific fell 7.5 percent as a global stock market rout hurt cryptocurrency and AI companies. Analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald said in a note that they viewed the sell-off as a buying opportunity in publicly traded mining stocks.

In June this year, CoreWeave proposed to acquire Core Scientific for $1.02 billion, and the two parties reached a preliminary agreement shortly afterwards. Core Scientific rejected the offer. Core Scientific's current market value is about $1.5 billion.