CoreWeave's $9 billion bid already faced its vote. The power sellers won.

The interview is real. The vote is a year gone

A story moving through feeds this week has CoreWeave chief Michael Intrator refusing to raise his bid for Core Scientific, with the shareholder vote on 30 October framed as still ahead ¹. The interview is real and a year old. The vote happened on 30 October 2025, and Core Scientific's owners said no, killing the roughly $9 billion all-stock sale↗ ². What is news now is the scorecard.

October 2025: paper meets power

The July 2025 deal↗ valued Core Scientific at $20.40 a share in CoreWeave stock, a 66% premium to its recent trading, yet the shares fell 18% on the announcement ¹⁴. Proxy advisers ISS and Glass Lewis both recommended rejection, reading the market as pricing Core Scientific above the paper on offer ³. Two Seas Capital, holding 6.3%, called the sliding bid "a take-under"; Trip Miller of Gullane, the third-largest holder, said he would vote no and predicted "a $30 to $40 company" if left alone ⁴. Intrator's answer in October 2025: best and final, the critics "misleading and misinformed," the target "a nice to have, not a need to have" ¹³⁴.

What the winners did with the asset

On 28 July 2026 Core Scientific signed 15-year leases↗ putting 529 megawatts of critical IT capacity with AMD's ecosystem, 377 directly with the chipmaker, plus reservation rights on 1,925 megawatts through December 2028 and warrants on 30 million shares at $23.47 ⁵⁶⁷. The new tenancy nearly matches the roughly 590 megawatts CoreWeave already leases there on the company's own count, and management claims more than $14 billion of potential base revenue over 15 years ⁵.

Independence, financed at 7.75 percent

The rebels were right about demand. The economics are still being built. Quarterly revenue doubled year over year to $164.2 million in June, 83% of it colocation rent, and CoreWeave still supplied 77% of first-half revenue ⁵⁷. Total debt rose from about $1.07 billion at the end of 2024 to $4.30 billion at the end of June, after $3.3 billion of 7.75% notes issued in May ⁵⁸. The stock traded at $17.34 on 25 September, below the $20.40 headline the register refused ³.

The buyer the rebels refused

CoreWeave grew anyway: $2.575 billion of second-quarter revenue, up 112%, on a backlog of about $129 billion ⁹. The currency is the question. Debt stands near $35.1 billion, interest ran $640 million in the quarter, and credit-default swaps reached 855 basis points before the August print, pricing five-year default at roughly a coin flip ⁹. The shares, off more than 48% from their high, traded at $87.59 on 25 September, and a $4.2 billion convertible priced at 2.875% on 22 September↗ shows which slice of the stack the market still trusts ³⁹¹⁰.

The verdict waits on two dates

Two dates settle the argument: first power delivered on the AMD leases in 2027, and the 1,925-megawatt reservation lapsing at the end of December 2028 ⁵⁷. Until then CoreWeave keeps paying rent to the landlord it failed to buy ⁶. CoreWeave offered its own shares as money, and the people who own the electricity declined the currency.