Core Scientific Brings AI Partnership Ahead of Halving

Bitcoin mining giant Core Scientific is making strategic moves to diversify its revenue streams in anticipation of the impending Bitcoin halving. The company has entered into a significant partnership with artificial intelligence startup CoreWeave to provide data center services, projecting potential revenue exceeding $100 million.

Data Center Lease in Austin

Core Scientific’s expansion involves leasing a Tier 3 data center in Austin, Texas, formerly housing Hewlett Packard, to accommodate CoreWeave’s infrastructure. The contract outlines the delivery of up to 16 megawatts of capacity at this new Austin data center. This makes Core Scientific’s foray into high-performance computing (HPC).

CoreWeave, an AI cloud computing company, boasts backing from major Wall Street financial firms, including Jane Street, J.P. Morgan Asset Management, and Fidelity. Valued at $7 billion as of December 2023, CoreWeave specializes in providing infrastructure for compute-intensive use cases, such as machine learning.

Previous Collaboration

Core Scientific CEO Adam Sullivan emphasized the strategic significance of the new data center in Austin, serving both CoreWeave’s needs and expanding Core Scientific’s hosting customer portfolio in bitcoin mining and specialized GPU cloud compute.

Notably, Core Scientific had previously hosted CoreWeave’s GPU processing hardware in its data centers from 2019 through 2022.

Business Model Flexibility

With over 300 MW of energized infrastructure in multiple U.S. states, Core Scientific operates in close proximity to major metropolitan areas, ensuring access to high-bandwidth telecommunications infrastructure—a crucial factor for supporting GPU cloud compute workloads. Sullivan stated:

“We believe today’s Core Scientific has the valuable ability to flex our asset base in order to maximize revenue and earnings. Our diversified business model and leading scale enable us to continue operating as a low-cost bitcoin miner while also expanding our hosting customer base and diversifying our earnings streams.”

Further Growth Plans

As of January 31, 2024, Core Scientific operates seven data centers in five U.S. states, most with a minimum operating capacity of 100MW, totaling an impressive 724 MW of operating capacity.

The company’s growth plan outlines a substantial expansion of 372 MW in bitcoin mining infrastructure at its two Texas data centers, equivalent to over 20 exahash of mining capacity. Core Scientific’s self-mining business has consistently outperformed other listed bitcoin miners in North America, delivering higher hash rate utilization than the average for its North American peer group.

Core Scientific’s expansion of service offerings comes strategically just weeks ahead of the Bitcoin halving event in 2024. This event, following previous halvings in 2020, 2016, and 2012, will halve the block reward for miners from the current 6.25 BTC per block to 3.125 BTC per block.