CoreWeave reopens acquisition talks with Core Scientific after rejected $1.02bn proposal in 2024

Nvidia-backed artificial intelligence infrastructure company CoreWeave Inc. (NASDAQ: CRWV) is reportedly in renewed talks to acquire Core Scientific Inc. (NASDAQ: CORZ), one of the largest bitcoin mining companies in North America, according to a Reuters report citing a source familiar with the matter. These new discussions come approximately a year after Core Scientific rejected a $1.02 billion all-cash offer from CoreWeave, citing undervaluation.

Core Scientific shares surged 33% on Thursday following the Wall Street Journal’s initial coverage of the potential deal, lifting the cryptocurrency infrastructure company’s market capitalization to around $5 billion based on Friday’s close. While neither firm has formally confirmed the renewed negotiations, institutional sentiment appears optimistic about a potential tie-up that could create one of the most energy-optimized, compute-intensive platforms spanning cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence (AI) workloads.

Why is CoreWeave trying again to acquire Core Scientific after its 2024 offer was rejected by shareholders?

CoreWeave originally submitted an unsolicited non-binding offer in June 2024 to acquire all outstanding shares of Core Scientific for $5.75 per share in cash, valuing the bitcoin miner at approximately $1.02 billion on a fully diluted basis. At the time, Core Scientific’s board rejected the proposal, stating the offer significantly undervalued the company and did not align with the best interests of shareholders.

Since that rejection, Core Scientific has rebounded strongly, both in terms of share performance and operational scale, bolstered by rising institutional interest in bitcoin mining capacity and its increasingly diversified infrastructure services. With a market capitalization now around $5 billion, any revived offer from CoreWeave is likely to come at a much higher valuation, indicating the cloud computing firm’s willingness to pay a strategic premium to secure energy-centric data center infrastructure.

Industry observers suggest that CoreWeave, which completed its Nasdaq IPO in March 2025 and is heavily backed by GPU giant Nvidia, is under pressure to scale compute resources quickly. Renewed talks with Core Scientific suggest that CoreWeave sees long-term strategic value in vertically integrating compute and power delivery, particularly at a time when demand for AI inference and training workloads is skyrocketing.

What strategic infrastructure agreements currently exist between CoreWeave and Core Scientific?

Even though the 2024 acquisition proposal did not materialize, CoreWeave and Core Scientific entered into a long-term commercial relationship shortly after. The two companies signed multiple 12-year contracts, one of which involves Core Scientific providing CoreWeave with approximately 200 megawatts (MW) of infrastructure capacity to support its high-performance AI compute workloads.

This partnership offered both companies meaningful strategic advantages. For CoreWeave, it meant guaranteed access to highly energy-efficient infrastructure suitable for GPU-dense AI clusters. For Core Scientific, it provided a new source of recurring revenue from outside the volatile cryptocurrency mining sector.

The current talks may be building on this foundational partnership. Analysts believe that CoreWeave may now be seeking to move from being a customer to an owner of these critical infrastructure assets, in order to reduce dependency on third parties and control both the power and computing stack under one umbrella.

How are energy constraints and compute demand aligning interests between AI cloud firms and crypto miners?

AI and crypto may operate in distinct software domains, but at the infrastructure level, they are increasingly competing for the same finite resources: electricity, cooling, and data center real estate. Bitcoin mining companies like Core Scientific operate some of the largest power-optimized facilities in the United States—designed to handle uninterrupted, high-density compute workloads.

As AI cloud companies, including CoreWeave, push to deploy massive GPU clusters for training large language models and other inference workloads, the need for stable, large-scale power becomes mission-critical. Acquiring bitcoin miners becomes a strategic pathway for cloud providers to shortcut the typical 18- to 36-month timeline needed to build data center infrastructure from the ground up.

Institutional investors are watching this convergence closely, viewing it as a precursor to industry-wide consolidation between legacy crypto mining infrastructure and next-generation AI compute demand. This backdrop adds urgency to CoreWeave’s interest in securing long-term access to physical infrastructure assets through potential acquisition.

What would an acquisition of Core Scientific mean for CoreWeave’s AI infrastructure expansion goals?

An acquisition of Core Scientific would instantly provide CoreWeave with operational control over hundreds of megawatts of existing infrastructure—well beyond the 200 MW already secured through contracts. This would allow the AI cloud provider to expand its data center footprint without waiting for new build-outs, offering a critical competitive advantage against hyperscalers and other AI startups.

CoreWeave has already established itself as a fast-scaling alternative to traditional cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud by offering optimized infrastructure for AI workloads at lower latency and cost. Bringing Core Scientific’s infrastructure in-house would reinforce this value proposition and allow CoreWeave to offer even more competitive service-level agreements to enterprise and government clients.

In addition to capacity advantages, the deal could offer financial and operational efficiencies by streamlining procurement, electricity contracting, and facility management, which are all vital components for delivering cost-effective AI infrastructure at scale.

What is the current investor sentiment toward a potential CoreWeave–Core Scientific deal?

The 33% surge in Core Scientific stock following news of the renewed acquisition talks reflects strong investor optimism about the potential for a high-premium transaction. Investors view this as a strategic move that acknowledges the rising valuation of energy-efficient crypto infrastructure and its adjacent utility for AI compute.

Market analysts have indicated that institutional investors are likely to support a deal that involves a significantly higher premium than the original $5.75 per share offer, particularly given the strategic alignment between the two firms and the broader consolidation trend across AI and crypto verticals.

For CoreWeave, whose shares have been under positive momentum post-IPO, the transaction would signal continued aggressive expansion, a favorable story for growth-oriented investors watching the AI infrastructure arms race unfold.

What future steps are expected as CoreWeave and Core Scientific advance negotiations?

While the deal is not finalized, sources suggest that negotiations are progressing and a transaction could be announced in the coming weeks. No specific terms of the current proposal have been made public, and both companies have declined to comment to media inquiries.

Should the deal go through, it may serve as a template for further M&A activity in the space, as AI infrastructure companies increasingly target bitcoin mining firms for their power-dense assets. Analysts expect similar moves from other GPU-intensive firms in search of low-cost, scalable data center capacity.

The outcome of these talks could also signal how the market values energy infrastructure in the age of AI—a trend that is reshaping the strategic calculus of both crypto mining firms and cloud providers alike.