Core Scientific refused a $9 billion buyout, then lost $1.5 billion in two quarters
Shareholders who voted down CoreWeave's $9 billion all-stock bid have paid two quarters for the decision: $1.5 billion of net losses and $4.4 billion of borrowings, while AMD locked in 529 megawatts for 15 years. The selling of what is left starts with a new chief commercial officer.
Vincent Jiang · 3 min read
Core Scientific hired Jay Elms as chief commercial officer on 25 September, taking CyrusOne's former global sales chief for one job: turn a refused takeover into paying customers 1. The company has been independent since 30 October 2025, when shareholders voted down CoreWeave's bid with proxy advisers ISS and Glass Lewis backing rejection, over CoreWeave's own chief executive 23.
The July leases answer the October vote
The refused offer was worth about $9 billion, $20.40 a share when announced, and CoreWeave chief executive Michael Intrator had called it "by far, the best alternative" 42. The answer came on 28 July 2026, when AMD signed 15-year leases across five campuses in Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama and Georgia: 529 megawatts for more than $14 billion of contracted base revenue 567. Leased power nearly doubles, to 1.1 gigawatts 4.
The fine print narrows it. AMD directly leased only 377 megawatts; a neocloud backed by AMD's credit took the other 152, and 1,925 megawatts more sit as reservation rights that expire in December 2028 45. Until the new halls rise, the refused suitor still rules the book: CoreWeave leases 590 megawatts and generated 77% of first-half revenue 4.
The cost of saying no lands on the equity
Independence bills in installments. The first quarter of 2026 lost $347.2 million, $266.5 million of it non-cash impairments, even as colocation revenue climbed to $77.5 million from $8.6 million a year earlier 8. The second quarter lost $1.16 billion on $164 million of revenue 9.
The balance sheet is doing the building. Borrowings reached $4.4 billion by June, led by $3.3 billion of 7.75% notes; August added $600 million of credit and a $421 million Oklahoma power buy 468. Quarterly capital spending hit $796 million, and of the $1 billion committed to construction, only $264 million is set to pass through to customers 94.
Capex has outrun revenue since mid-2025 and now runs at five times it
- Capital spending
- Revenue
Data
| Capital spending | Revenue | |
|---|---|---|
| Q3 '24 | $0.03B | $0.1B |
| Q4 '24 | $0.03B | $0.1B |
| Q1 '25 | $0.08B | $0.08B |
| Q2 '25 | $0.12B | $0.08B |
| Q3 '25 | $0.24B | $0.08B |
| Q4 '25 | $0.28B | $0.08B |
| Q1 '26 | $0.39B | $0.12B |
| Q2 '26 | $0.8B | $0.16B |
Two quarters of independence took net income to minus $1.5 billion
Data
| Net income | |
|---|---|
| Q3 '25 | -$0.14B |
| Q4 '25 | $0.22B |
| Q1 '26 | -$0.35B |
| Q2 '26 | -$1.16B |
Debt doubled in two quarters as the build-out outran operating cash
- Borrowings
- Capital spending
Data
| Borrowings | Capital spending | |
|---|---|---|
| Q3 '25 | $1.06B | $0.24B |
| Q4 '25 | $1.06B | $0.28B |
| Q1 '26 | $2.06B | $0.39B |
| Q2 '26 | $4.3B | $0.8B |
The bull case prices the risk anyway
UBS opened coverage on 23 September with Buy and a $24 target, arguing AMD-backed tenancy spreads the tenant risk and opens a path to roughly 3 gigawatts 10. Compass Point and Canaccord price the stock at $36, Needham at $35 10.
The bull case sits $7 to $19 above the stock, and above what the refused bid was worth
- Share price or target
- Estimate
Data
| Share price or target | |
|---|---|
| Stock close, 25 September | $17.34 |
| Refused CoreWeave bid | $20.4 |
| UBS target (estimate) | $24 |
| Needham target (estimate) | $35 |
| Compass Point and Canaccord target (estimate) | $36 |
For scale, Digital Realty leases 3 gigawatts and carries roughly $90 billion of enterprise value; Core Scientific's market value is about $6 billion 10. The unresolved item is who funds the build: the CoreWeave conversions were customer-financed, and project-funding terms for the AMD campuses were not disclosed 4. The stock closed 25 September at $17.34, under the $20.40 the bid was worth 410.
December 2028 decides the bet
UBS expects clarity on project financing and end offtakers within months, and management aims to have the first 529 megawatts running in 2027 104. That is the runway Elms was hired to sell: 1,925 megawatts of AMD reservation rights expire in December 2028, when AMD either converts them into leases or leaves the pipeline half sold 45. AMD bought the power. Core Scientific's shareholders bought the construction risk.
How this brief was made
01Gathered & sourced380 channels · 2,122 articles▾
Agents swept 380 channels and ingested 2,122 articles, then de-duplicated and ranked them for signal.
02Verified & cross-validated10 claims · 24 data feeds▾
Every one of 10 load-bearing claims was checked against primary sources, with 24 live data feeds reconciling the figures and charts.
- 1Core Scientific, Inc., press release, "Core Scientific Appoints Jay Elms as Chief Commercial Officer," 25 September 2026
- 2Seeking Alpha News, "CoreWeave CEO calls on Core Scientific shareholders to back acquisition under current terms," 22 October 2025
- 3Axios (Dan Primack) on MSN, "Core Scientific, CoreWeave merger fail highlights AI valuation optimism amid bubble talk," 31 October 2025
- 4Yahoo Finance / Insider Monkey (Jeff Lewis), "Core Scientific (CORZ) Shareholders Rejected a $9B Sale. Does the AMD Deal Vindicate Them?", 9 August 2026
- 5AOL / TheStreet (Opeyemi Babalola), "AMD's Core Scientific deal is bigger than the headline number," 29 July 2026
- 6Core Scientific, Inc., investor press-release index, retrieved 28 September 2026
- 7Slicast, "AMD AI Infrastructure, September 2026: $14B Core Scientific Deal and $450M LUMI-AI Contract Expand the Challenge to NVIDIA," 21 September 2026
- 8CoinMarketCap, "Core Scientific Posts $347.2M Q1 Loss Despite Revenue Growth," May 2026
- 9Sharadar quarterly fundamentals, from Core Scientific's SEC filings, retrieved 28 September 2026
- 10Investing.com, "UBS initiates Core Scientific stock with buy rating on AMD capacity," 23 September 2026
03Reviewed & edited1 human editor▾
One editor read the draft against the evidence, tuned the framing, and signed off before it shipped.
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