Core Scientific, Inc. Common Stock

Core Scientific, Inc. (NASDAQ:CORZ) completed its acquisition of Polaris DS for roughly $444 million in cash on August 14, 2026, adding about 440 megawatts of grid-connected power capacity in Oklahoma as part of its push to expand its Muskogee campus to 1.5 gigawatts of gross power. CEO Adam Sullivan said the deal is "another example of how we are strategically expanding our power portfolio," noting the company has added more than 600 megawatts of leasable power through site acquisitions this year alone. Core Scientific is already contracted to deliver the next roughly 82 megawatts at Muskogee to a customer starting in the second half of 2027, and it signed a deal with AMD in July that gives AMD access to more than 500 megawatts of AI-ready data center capacity starting in 2027, expandable to 2.5 gigawatts, with AMD receiving market-priced warrants to purchase Core Scientific stock. However, the company is still repurposing former bitcoin-mining sites into AI hosting capacity, a shift that isn't fully complete, and it hasn't disclosed the financing terms behind its acquisition spree, including this latest $444 million deal. Competition for power and data center capacity has intensified sharply, with AMD, Nvidia, and other chipmakers signing similar megawatt-scale deals across multiple providers, meaning Core Scientific's newly acquired capacity might not stay rare or valuable for long. As of Q1 2026, 81 hedge funds held Core Scientific, up from 76, while Riot Platforms was held by 49 hedge funds, down from 55, and CleanSpark by 37, up from 32.

The Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF has surged 97% over the past year even as bitcoin fell 46%, driven by miners pivoting to multi-billion-dollar AI infrastructure leases. Core Scientific signed a 15-year AMD lease worth more than $14 billion in base contracted revenue across 530 megawatts, while IREN inked a five-year, $3.4 billion NVIDIA cloud contract plus a NVIDIA investment of up to $2.1 billion. Riot Platforms layered a 20-year, 191-megawatt lease with a frontier AI lab, pushing total contracted data-center revenue to $9.8 billion. The fund's bull case now rests on 15-year AI leases rather than hash rates, with hyperscaler capex from NVIDIA, AMD, and Microsoft driving performance more than bitcoin. Investors wanting direct bitcoin exposure should use a spot bitcoin ETF like iShares Bitcoin Trust instead of WGMI, which now behaves as an AI infrastructure landlord rather than a crypto proxy.

Advanced Micro Devices reported higher second-quarter 2026 sales and net income versus a year earlier, issued third-quarter revenue guidance, and unveiled AMD Instinct Coder, a turnkey enterprise AI inference solution built with Spectro Cloud and Supermicro on Instinct MI325X GPUs. The company also announced a planned acquisition of AI inference startup Taalas and a large-scale data center capacity partnership with Core Scientific, intensifying its push to offer full-stack AI hardware and software for cloud and enterprise customers. AMD's investment narrative projects $106.2 billion revenue and $28.9 billion earnings by 2029, requiring 41.6% yearly revenue growth and an earnings increase of about $24.0 billion from $4.9 billion today. Some analysts assume more cautious 2029 revenue of about $88.2 billion and earnings of $15.0 billion, worrying that rising R&D and foundry costs could pressure margins even if new AI systems gain traction.

Core Scientific shareholders who rejected a $9 billion all-stock acquisition by CoreWeave last year have seen the company announce a major infrastructure partnership with Advanced Micro Devices. The deal gives AMD's ecosystem access to more than 500 megawatts of U.S. data-center capacity beginning in 2027, with the potential to expand to 2.5 gigawatts. Core Scientific's regulatory filing showed AMD directly leased 377 megawatts, while an unnamed neocloud leased another 152 megawatts under agreements that give AMD certain equipment protections and rights if that customer defaults. The new leases almost double total leased customer power capacity to approximately 1.1 gigawatts, representing more than $24 billion of potential contracted revenue including the existing CoreWeave relationship. The partnership validates the shareholder argument that Core Scientific's power portfolio could attract major customers beyond CoreWeave, though the ultimate value remains uncertain given capital requirements and the fact that the $14 billion potential revenue figure is collected over 15 years before costs.

Morgan Stanley projects a 38-gigawatt electricity gap for U.S. data centers, leaving up to an 11-gigawatt deficit through 2028 even after all practical solutions are deployed. The investment bank estimates that natural gas turbines could provide 15 to 20 gigawatts of that capacity, making GE Vernova the clearest beneficiary given its dominance in large-frame gas turbines and a multiyear data center order backlog. Other potential solutions include fuel cells, co-located nuclear plants, and repurposed Bitcoin mining sites, but Morgan Stanley's base case still shows a supply shortfall. Companies such as Bloom Energy, Constellation Energy, Vistra, Talen Energy, Core Scientific, IREN, and Cipher Mining also stand to benefit from the power crunch. The analysis suggests the AI industry's biggest obstacle has shifted from semiconductor supply to electricity supply, with owners of existing power assets poised to capture significant value.

Advanced Micro Devices shares soared approximately 12.7% in Thursday's regular-session trading as AI-chip stocks rebounded following Microsoft's stronger cloud results. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index advanced approximately 6.7%, putting it on course to end a five-session decline. The move returned investor attention to AMD's agreement with Core Scientific, a data-center operator transitioning from cryptocurrency infrastructure to AI computing. The agreement gives AMD access to more than 500 megawatts of AI-ready capacity beginning in 2027, with the potential to expand to 2.5 gigawatts, a fivefold increase. AMD customers will be able to deploy the company's chips and software on the infrastructure, while the companies collaborate on physical data-center design.

Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded Core Scientific to Outperform from Market Perform and raised its price target to $28 from $25, implying a 35% total return. The upgrade follows a 529-megawatt lease package with AMD that KBW says raises the stock's valuation floor, with 377 megawatts leased directly to AMD under triple-net terms and 152 megawatts leased to an unnamed neocloud under modified-gross terms. Core Scientific estimates the 15-year agreements could generate over $14 billion of potential base contracted revenue with 2.5% annual escalators, and deliveries are set to begin in Pecos, Texas, in the first half of 2027 and reach full capacity by the end of 2028. KBW values the contracted portfolio at about $23 per share using a 6.7% cap rate, and sees additional upside from AMD's right to reserve another 1,925 megawatts, with 384 megawatts of interconnection-backed capacity potentially supporting a valuation of around $33 per share. The bank raised its 2027 EBITDA estimate to $629.7 million from $498.6 million as the new capacity comes online.

Core Scientific and AMD have entered a 15-year, $14 billion infrastructure partnership, a deal that Scott Melker argues marks a turning point where AI infrastructure proves more lucrative than bitcoin mining.

BlackRock, Fidelity, Franklin Templeton, Goldman Sachs, and SoFi are publicly backing the Clarity Act, a crypto market structure bill, with only about a week and a half left before the Senate recess begins on August 8th. The asset managers are supporting the legislation while banks led by Jamie Dimon and JPMorgan oppose it, creating a major divide on Wall Street. The firms backing the bill seek regulatory clarity on jurisdiction between the SEC and CFTC, investor protections, and rules for a competitive American market. Separately, Morgan Stanley launched Ethereum and Solana exchange-traded products with fees of .14%, or 14 bips, and plans to pass staking rewards back to investors. Core Scientific signed a 15-year agreement with AMD for approximately 530 megawatts across five states, representing more than 14 billion in potential contracted revenue, as the company shifts focus from Bitcoin mining to AI data centers.

Advanced Micro Devices and Core Scientific announced an infrastructure partnership on July 28 that starts with more than 500 megawatts of U.S. data center capacity in 2027 and can expand to 2.5 gigawatts. The full 2.5 gigawatts is not firm capacity, with the partnership anchored by 15-year agreements for approximately 530 megawatts across five sites and more than $14 billion of potential base contracted revenue, though that figure is not recognized revenue and no GPU-purchase commitment was disclosed. Core Scientific will supply energized land, cooling, networking, and high-density rack buildings, while the companies jointly design facilities around AMD Instinct GPUs, EPYC CPUs, and ROCm software. AMD will receive market-priced warrants to buy Core Scientific common stock, subject to commercial conditions, aligning it with the infrastructure provider's execution and offering potential equity upside. For Core Scientific, the deal allows it to monetize power and converted sites through high-density colocation tied to AMD customer installations, broadening its AI customer base after shareholders rejected a proposed all-stock sale to CoreWeave in October 2025.

Crypto highlights for 29 July 2026. We start with Morgan Stanley allowing financial advisors to offer Bitcoin ETF trading to select clients, making it the first major bank to do so. Meanwhile, Binance TH by Gulf Binance officially launched its crypto trading platform in Thailand, supporting Thai baht deposits and withdrawals through Thai banks. Coinbase reported better-than-expected second-quarter results, with revenue of 1.45 billion US dollars and net income of 36 million US dollars. Nansen revealed a July crypto hack report showing total losses of 286 million US dollars. Core Scientific announced an expansion into AI with a 12-year contract worth 3.5 billion US dollars with CoreWeave, and Ionic Digital is preparing for an IPO within this year. On the legal front, the US Senate proposed the Clarity Act to establish a clear crypto tax framework, and the US SEC delayed its decision on physical redemption Ethereum ETFs. Additionally, Zcash is preparing a major network upgrade to Proof-of-Stake by 2027, and 1inch launched a Layer 2 solution on Ethereum to reduce fees and increase speed.

BTIG raised its price target on Core Scientific to $38 from $33 while maintaining a Buy rating. The firm cited accelerating data center construction and persistent demand for prompt power as drivers of artificial intelligence colocation opportunities. Core Scientific recently closed a $3.3 billion offering of 7.75% senior secured notes due 2031 and expanded its gross power capacity pipeline to 4.5 GW. The company also acquired land and power assets in Hunt County, Texas, for approximately $233 million, supporting about 430 MW of capacity.

Hut 8, TeraWulf, and Core Scientific have each gained more than 90% year-to-date by converting Bitcoin mining facilities into AI data centers with long-term triple-net leases. Core Scientific stands out as the most attractive option, already collecting rent from CoreWeave, trading at just 25 times sales, and planning to wind down Bitcoin mining by end of 2026. TeraWulf and Hut 8 carry elevated risk due to high valuation multiples, Bitcoin-related losses, and data center revenues that remain largely unrealized future income streams. Hut 8 has secured a 15-year triple-net lease valued at $9.8 billion for its Beacon Point data center, but the site is not expected to be operational until 2027, and the company lost $1.98 per share in Q1 2026. TeraWulf reported $21 million in high-performance compute leasing revenue in Q1 2026, yet trades at 82 times sales and faces shareholder dilution from an $800 million stock offering.