---
title: "Core Scientific's 10-Q counts its backlog in megawatts, not $24 billion"
description: "Its only filed dollar schedule covers leases already running, undiscounted, and leaves out the uncommenced CoreWeave and AMD blocks behind the $24 billion headline. After CoreWeave's blowout quarter, the open risk is what the backlog is worth, and the new 7.75% notes start charging interest on November 15."
publisher: "The Inference"
section: "Data Center"
published: 2026-11-13T16:25:49.818Z
modified: 2026-11-13T16:25:49.818Z
canonical: https://theinference.org/article/core-scientific-s-10-q-counts-its-backlog-in-megawatts-not-24-billion
language: en
keywords: "Core Scientific, CoreWeave, Data Centers, AI Infrastructure, AMD"
---

# Core Scientific's 10-Q counts its backlog in megawatts, not $24 billion

> Its only filed dollar schedule covers leases already running, undiscounted, and leaves out the uncommenced CoreWeave and AMD blocks behind the $24 billion headline. After CoreWeave's blowout quarter, the open risk is what the backlog is worth, and the new 7.75% notes start charging interest on November 15.

[CoreWeave](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/coreweave), the AI-cloud operator behind every dollar of [Core Scientific](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/core-scientific)'s colocation revenue, reported a blowout third quarter, settling the easy risk over the data-center landlord's single tenant. [1][3] CORZ rose about 11% with the news. [1] The hard risk is arithmetic. The $24 billion of "potential contracted revenue" anchoring the stock story comes from a July 28 release, not [the Form 10-Q filed on November 5](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1839341/000183934126000030/core-20260930.htm). [2][3]

## The filing measures the backlog in megawatts

The 10-Q tracks signed commitments as Leased Customer Power Capacity: power committed under executed contracts, whether or not service has begun. [3] At September 30 that was 1,120 megawatts leased against 485 billing; the gap is capacity still under construction, including roughly 530 megawatts leased to chipmaker [AMD](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/amd) and a neocloud, a smaller AI-cloud operator renting out GPU capacity, with revenue beginning in phases from 2027. [3] AMD's right to reserve a further 1,925 megawatts is, in the filing's words, not a binding lease commitment. [3]

*Chart: **1,120 MW leased; only 485 MW are billing** Stacked bar splitting Core Scientific's 1,120 leased megawatts at September 30, 2026, into 485 billing now, 530 signed with AMD and smaller AI-cloud tenants but not commenced, and 105 for CoreWeave still in construction.*

*Leased Customer Power Capacity at September 30, 2026, by status, in megawatts; AI-cloud startups are the filing's neocloud counterparty. Source: Core Scientific Form 10-Q. [3]*

## The only dollar schedule leaves out the largest blocks

The 10-Q's one schedule of customer receipts is $7,484,422 thousand (about $7.5 billion) of future operating-lease payments on leases that have commenced, undiscounted as lease accounting rules require for that table. [3][4] Two blocks sit outside it, both named in the same filing: [$1.8 billion of CoreWeave payments on leases that have not commenced](https://theinference.org/article/core-scientific-booked-the-revenue-its-1-8-billion-run-rate-sits-behind-a-permit-a-study-and-2027-bonds), and all of the AMD leases. [3] The $24 billion rests on exactly the leases the table excludes [3].

*Chart: **Three dollar figures for one backlog, none interchangeable** Bar chart of three dollar figures attached to Core Scientific's backlog: $24B potential contracted revenue from the July release, $7.5B undiscounted lease receipts in the 10-Q, and $0.7B annualized run-rate on billable megawatts.*

*Different populations on different bases: a multi-year potential figure on about 1.1 GW including uncommenced leases (Q2 release, July 28, 2026); undiscounted future payments on commenced operating leases (Form 10-Q, $7,484,422 thousand); average annualized colocation GAAP revenue on billable capacity (Q3 release, November 5, 2026). [2][3][5]*

## CoreWeave's quarter changed the tenant's credit, not the calendar

The market paid for the safer tenant: CoreWeave's revenue backlog reached $132.5 billion. [1] Its chief executive expects about $9 billion of customer prepayments and deposits within three months. [1] Core Scientific carries the build while it finishes: it [sold $3.3 billion of 7.75% senior secured notes due 2031 this spring](https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/coreweave-blowout-quarter-good-news-072909289.html), and total debt has roughly quadrupled since December. [1][3] None of that moves a commencement date, and the AMD buildings deliver from 2027. [3]

*Chart: **Debt quadrupled to $4.3B while quarterly revenue reached $233M** Line chart of Core Scientific's total debt and quarterly revenue from the fourth quarter of 2023 to the third quarter of 2026: debt rises from $0.97 billion to $4.30 billion, while quarterly revenue climbs from $142 million to $233 million.*

*Total debt and quarterly revenue, US$ billions. Debt roughly quadrupled from $1.06 billion at December 31, 2025 to $4.30 billion at September 30, 2026, the quarter the 7.75% senior secured notes land in. Source: Core Scientific, quarterly figures from its SEC filings, retrieved 13 November 2026. [6]*

## Only the $700 million is revenue arriving today

Billing 485 megawatts represented more than $700 million of average annualized colocation GAAP revenue in [the third-quarter release](https://www.aol.com/articles/core-scientific-announces-third-quarter-120000000.html), and CoreWeave stands behind 84% of nine-month revenue. [5][3] A signed megawatt pays nothing until the buildings behind it are delivered; a commenced lease pays rent this quarter. Anyone valuing this landlord must pick a population, a term and a discount rate the filing declined to choose.

The clock has a first tick: the notes pay their first interest on November 15, 2026 [3]. Principal amortization, at an initial 11.5% a year, waits on rent commencement under the related leases, and [the AMD leases begin delivering revenue in phases from 2027](https://theinference.org/article/amd-backs-the-rent-on-core-scientific-s-529-megawatts-of-15-year-ai-leases-on-terms-never-filed). [3] That is the window the $700 million run-rate has to grow into [3].

## Takeaway

The $24 billion headline covers leases that the 10-Q's only dollar schedule leaves out; only 485 of 1,120 leased megawatts bill today, and the rest arrives from 2027.

## Sources

1. [Yahoo Finance (TIKR), CoreWeave's Blowout Quarter Is Good News for Core Scientific's $10 Billion Contract, 12 November 2026](https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/coreweave-blowout-quarter-good-news-072909289.html)
2. [TipRanks via The Globe and Mail, Core Scientific Expands Colocation Capacity with AMD Partnership, 29 July 2026](https://www.theglobeandmail.com/investing/markets/stocks/CORZ/pressreleases/3522559/core-scientific-expands-colocation-capacity-with-amd-partnership/)
3. [Core Scientific, Inc., Form 10-Q for the quarter ended 30 September 2026, filed with the SEC 5 November 2026](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1839341/000183934126000030/core-20260930.htm)
4. [BTW Media, Core Scientific backlog: megawatts in the 10-Q, $24bn in a release, 13 November 2026](https://btw.media/en/core-scientific-backlog-megawatts-dollars-three-perimeters)
5. [Core Scientific, Inc. press release (Business Wire via AOL), Core Scientific Announces Third Quarter 2026 Results, 5 November 2026](https://www.aol.com/articles/core-scientific-announces-third-quarter-120000000.html)
6. [Core Scientific, quarterly figures from its SEC filings, retrieved 13 November 2026](https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0001839341)


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Core Scientific's 10-Q counts its backlog in megawatts, not $24 billion — The Inference. Canonical: https://theinference.org/article/core-scientific-s-10-q-counts-its-backlog-in-megawatts-not-24-billion