CoreWeave to Acquire Core Scientific in All-Stock Deal as Part of Growth Strategy

CoreWeave (CRWV), an AI infrastructure leader, has announced plans to acquire bitcoin miner Core Scientific (CORZ) in an all-stock transaction that values CORZ at roughly $20.40 per share based on recent closing prices.

The offer price sits near the midpoint of Jefferies’ earlier estimated acquisition range of $16–$23 per share. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2025.

Following the announcement, Core Scientific shares fell 22%, trading around $14 at the time of publication. Other bitcoin miners and potential high-performance computing (HPC) plays, including HUT 8 and Cleanspark (CLSK), were also down more than 7%, while IREN (IREN), another miner in a similar position, rose by 3%. CoreWeave shares declined by 3.3%.

Jefferies analysts noted that CoreWeave’s strong stock performance after its IPO has positioned it well for significant M&A activity. They view the acquisition as a strategic move to vertically integrate CoreWeave’s operations and reduce reliance on long-term leases and external developers.

“CoreWeave is well-positioned to leverage its relatively low cost of equity to replace long-term lease obligations and directly control data center assets,” wrote analysts Jonathan Petersen and Jan Aygul.

The acquisition reflects the broader trend of consolidation in the AI infrastructure and high-performance computing sectors, as companies seek scale and operational control to keep pace with growing demand.

For CoreWeave, the deal represents a step toward becoming not just a compute provider but a full-stack infrastructure operator—a critical position as AI-driven workloads and cloud-native applications continue to expand.

By acquiring Core Scientific’s data center assets and platform, CoreWeave gains the ability to expand its owned infrastructure and exercise greater control over future capacity growth, according to the analysts.

Core Scientific has also been pursuing new lease agreements with hyperscalers, and Jefferies suggested CoreWeave may be moving quickly to secure those opportunities before new deals are finalized.

Jefferies maintains a buy rating on Core Scientific stock with an $18 price target.

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