Core Scientific shares soar as CoreWeave revives buyout talks

CoreWeave’s previous takeover bid for Bitcoin miner Core Scientific was rejected for being too low.

CoreWeave — once a cryptocurrency miner and now a rising AI infrastructure provider — is reportedly in acquisition talks with Core Scientific, after increasing a previously rejected bid made last year to the Bitcoin mining firm.

A takeover bid could be “finalized in the company weeks,” The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing sources with knowledge of the discussions. No financial details were provided, though the offer would have to account for Core Scientific’s rapid expansion over the past year.

Shares of Core Scientific rallied more than 23% on the news, with trading temporarily halted after the Journal’s report.

At current values, Core commands a market capitalization of roughly $3.6 billion.

*Core Scientific stock, trading under the ticker CORZ, saw a massive intraday rally. Source: Google Finance*

Core Scientific’s growth since the previous takeover attempt

As the Journal reported, CoreWeave offered $5.75 per share in a takeover bid for Core Scientific last year, valuing the Bitcoin miner at approximately $1 billion.

At the time, Core Scientific declined the offer, expressing a preference to deepen its existing partnership with CoreWeave, which included a $1.225 billion agreement to enhance infrastructure support for its Nvidia GPUs.

*CoreWeave’s stock, trading under the ticker CRWV, has rallied nearly 300% this year, bringing its market cap to $78.4 billion. Source: Google Finance*

Core Scientific’s decision to reject the offer ultimately paid off, as its stock now trades at nearly three times the original bid.

As Cointelegraph reported, the company’s first-quarter earnings more than doubled, with net income reaching $580 million. However, revenue fell short of analyst expectations, coming in at $79.5 million. Most of that revenue ($67.2 million) was from self-mining.

Like other Bitcoin miners, Core attributed its revenue and mining drops to the quadrennial halving in April 2024, which reduced the Bitcoin network’s mining rewards to 3.125 Bitcoin (BTC) from 6.25 BTC.

Core Scientific is listed as the 30th largest corporate Bitcoin holder, with 977 BTC on its books, according to industry data.