CoreWeave Is Buying Core Scientific. The CEO Explains Why.

CoreWeave stock has soared since its initial public offering earlier this year. (Courtesy CoreWeave)

CoreWeave stock fell Monday after the artificial-intelligence cloud vendor said it would buy data-center infrastructure partner Core Scientific.

CoreWeave was founded in 2017 and provides large-scale access to graphics processing units, or GPUs, via the cloud. The company leases data center space from Core Scientific and tried to acquire the company last year.

Core Scientific shareholders will receive 0.1235 newly issued shares of CoreWeave for each share of Core Scientific they hold. The exchange ratio implies a total equity value for Core Scientific of $9.0 billion or $20.40 per share.

“This acquisition accelerates our strategy to deploy AI and HPC workloads at scale,” CoreWeave CEO Michael Intrator said in a news release. The deal “enables CoreWeave to significantly enhance operating efficiency and de-risk our future expansion, solidifying our growth trajectory.”

CoreWeave shares were down 3.3% in Monday trading. Core Scientific shares fell 18%, likely due to trading dynamics around the all-stock deal. The Wall Street Journal reported talks were taking place between the companies last month.

The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2025 subject to regulatory approval and a shareholder vote. CoreWeave expects the merger will lead to more than $500 million in annualized cost savings by the end of 2027.

The deal will add around 1.3 gigawatts of gross power capacity to CoreWeave’s data-center portfolio, with an additional potential 1 gigawatt of power available for expansion. Of the current existing capacity, 840 megawatts of power already were leased to CoreWeave, with the rest dedicated to cryptocurrency mining.

In an interview with Barron’s, Intrator said that the combined company—thanks to the data-center assets owned by Core Scientific—would be able to raise future financing at a lower cost of capital. He also said having direct control over future data center designs would be “enormously important” and can benefit customers as new Nvidia AI servers are deployed in the coming years. Future Nvidia AI servers will require more power per server rack, Nvidia management has said.

The CoreWeave CEO said the company is looking for other M&A deals, too. “We are constantly looking at the space and trying to identify where we think there are things that can be added to our company inorganically that will allow us to provide more value to our clients and drive more value to our shareholders,” he said.

When asked if CoreWeave was willing to do sovereign AI partnerships in Europe or in the Middle East, Intrator said CoreWeave is open to do deals around the world if it was the “right opportunity.”

On a conference call with analysts and investors, CoreWeave management said the merger will enable the combined company to have the size and scale necessary to be a significant player in the burgeoning AI infrastructure market.

On Thursday, CoreWeave announced it is the first cloud provider to deploy Nvidia’s latest GB300 NVL72 AI systems for customers.

Write to Tae Kim at tae.kim@barrons.com and Adam Clark at adam.clark@barrons.com