Core Scientific has revealed a landmark 15-year partnership with Advanced Micro Devices valued at more than $14 billion, marking a strategic shift from bitcoin mining to artificial intelligence-focused data centers.
Core Scientific’s largest expansion to date
Under the agreement, Core Scientific will lease AMD 529 megawatts (MW) of AI infrastructure capacity across the United States. The deal includes an option for AMD to reserve up to an additional 1,925 MW by December 28, 2028, potentially increasing the total partnership capacity to approximately 2.5 gigawatts (GW).
| Party | Leased Capacity | Location |
|---|---|---|
| AMD | 377 MW | Pecos, Hunt County (Texas), Muskogee (Oklahoma) |
| Cloud provider (unnamed) | 152 MW | Auburn (Alabama), Dalton (Georgia) |
| Total under agreement | 529 MW (with AMD rights up to 2.5 GW) | United States |
According to Core Scientific, the 529 MW of leased capacity supports initial customer deployments starting in 2027. The company reported that the arrangement could deliver more than $14 billion in base contracted revenue.
AMD, a global leader in semiconductor solutions, will collaborate with Core Scientific on data center design and the deployment of its Instinct graphics processing units, EPYC processors, and ROCm software platform.
An unnamed cloud provider has also signed leases, supported by AMD, for an additional 152 MW at sites in Alabama and Georgia, increasing customer diversification.
Mini dictionary: ROCm is an open software platform developed by AMD to support high-performance computing and AI applications across its GPU and CPU lineup, providing developers with tools for optimized machine learning and data science workloads.
Financials and strategic transition
The company also disclosed that AMD received warrants to purchase up to 30 million shares of Core Scientific stock at $23.47 per share. The initial leases triggered the vesting of around 6.5 million warrants, with additional warrants to vest as more capacity is contracted.
Colocation accounted for $136.7 million, or 83% of Core Scientific’s $164.2 million in second-quarter revenue, while revenue from its self-mining operation fell 66% to $21.5 million.
With the new agreements, Core Scientific’s total leased customer capacity reaches roughly 1.1 GW, and the company estimates potential contracted revenue from these leases at over $24 billion. As of mid-July, Core Scientific billed customers for 437 MW, translating to about $635 million in annualized colocation revenue.
This partnership underscores Core Scientific’s ongoing shift away from bitcoin mining. The company recently terminated its agreement to purchase 3-nanometer bitcoin-mining chips designed by Block, recording a $41.9 million impairment charge on its books. The cancelled agreement would have supplied around 15 exahash per second (EH/s) of hashrate capacity.
As of June 30, Core Scientific held 848 BTC valued at $49.7 million, up from 547 BTC in the previous quarter. It reported sales of 2,385 BTC for $208.2 million in the first quarter of the year.
Market reaction
Following the announcement, Core Scientific’s shares rose 5.6% in pre-market trading. However, shares of AMD fell 4% as broader chip sector stocks declined.
The agreements provide AMD with significant access to U.S. AI data center infrastructure, while positioning Core Scientific as a key player in the growing AI hosting market.
