Core Scientific Plummets 17% Amid $9B CoreWeave Acquisition

Core Scientific's shares tumbled 17% Monday as markets reacted to its confirmed $9 billion all-stock acquisition by AI infrastructure firm CoreWeave. The decline reverses earlier gains fueled by June acquisition rumors, which had propelled CORZ shares up 50% cumulatively.

Bernstein analysts attribute the sell-off to investor disappointment with the deal structure. 'The absence of cash consideration and price protection mechanisms creates execution risk,' noted Gautam Chhugani. Market expectations likely exceeded the valuation multiple, particularly given CoreWeave's existing $10 billion hosting agreement with Core Scientific.

The transaction eliminates CoreWeave's contractual liabilities while granting direct control over 1.2 GW of data center capacity - a strategic MOVE as AI workloads demand increasingly specialized infrastructure. This mirrors broader industry trends where vertical integration is becoming critical for scaling compute-intensive applications.