In a period of less than two years, Core Scientific has set its $9 billion acquisition target from the bankrupt Crypto Mining Company. how? By reinventing itself as a startup in the artificial intelligence-driven data center trend.
Only now is one of the company’s biggest shareholders is encouraging other investors to vote for the transaction. He claims that $9 billion is almost not enough.
The lesser known combat of acquisitions between data center companies may seem like an industry footnote, but it speaks to the volume of the vast infrastructure arms races taking place behind the AI boom.
Data centers provide the computing and storage needed for AI, and to operate them, they need urban-sized power.
This and other rising electricity demand outweighed the ability of grids across the country to maintain, lifting the fate of data center platforms like Core Scientific, which have access to electricity, and lifting the right to contract more in the short term.
“We’re looking forward to seeing the company’s efforts to ensure we’re committed to working with people who are looking for a way to spend time with people who are looking for a way to spend time with people who are looking for a way to spend their time with people who are looking for a way to spend their time with people who are looking for a way to spend their time with people who are looking for a way to spend their time with people who are looking for a way to spend their time with people who are looking for a way to spend their time with people who are looking for a way to spend their time
$9 billion M&A deal on rocks
In July, CoreWeave, a public data center company with around $60 billion, announced that it had reached an agreement with Core Scientific, which merged in all share transactions that at the time valued Core Scientific at about $9 billion.
However, in early September, one of Core Scientific’s biggest shareholders published a draft proxy letter urging stockholders to vote against the merger.
Among the key shareholder attributes, investment company Two Seas Capital was attributed to Core Scientific.
“Core Scientific offers immediate access to key first-movers advantages, critical scales, and low-cost power, which we believe will ensure that the company emerges as clear leaders and compound growth over the next few years,” he said in the letter.
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The merger that Dede said is now “at risk” will expand CoreWeave’s existing capacity to more than 2 gigawatts, expanding approximately one-third of New York City’s electricity capacity on an average day.
In a statement on the merger, a CoreWeave spokesperson said the company is “confident in ensuring the approval needed to acquire Core Scientific,” and the deal “strengthens our ability to meet the extraordinary demand we see.”
Recent industry reports suggest that limited access to electricity is already straining data center expansion. Commercial real estate services company CBRE said a new data center of about 5.2 gigawatts was underway in the US Prime market in the first half of 2025, with the industry’s construction pipeline down 17.5% from the same period last year.
Pat Lynch, global head of CBRE’s data center solutions team, said the decline was primarily due to the rarity of electricity.
“It’s not a shortage of demand, it’s a shortage of supply, especially a practical force,” Lynch said. “Because there are no power and equipment restrictions, its supply distributions will be significantly higher.”
Great growth and electronic premium
Consulting firm McKinsey estimates that there will be 80 gigawatt demand for data centers by 2030, more than tripling from today, with $2.8 trillion to be spent on data center development by the end of the decade.
The dramatic growth of the industry has attracted institutional investors.
John Dinsdale, chief analyst and research director at Synergy Research Group, a data company that tracks the data center industry, said the $46.1 billion data center mergers and acquisition transactions ended in 2025, with an additional $34 billion pending. If all pending transactions are closed by the end of the year, 2025 will set a record of data center transactions in dollar amounts.
Key investors have chosen acquisition targets with GigaWattage’s large portfolio.
Apollo recently announced that it has gained a majority interest in the streams of well-known data center companies, saying the company is “over 4 gigawatts.”
Investors Snowhawk and Nuveen announced in July that they had purchased private shares in Prime, another prominent data center operator. According to the announcement, Prime has a “4 Gigawatt Roadmap of Power across the Top Tier Market” with “delivery” of over gigawatts between 2025 and 2028.
Nuveen’s global infrastructure head Biff Ourso said Power is a key attribute it seeks in data center transactions it pursues, including transactions with Prime.
“That’s an important part of the equation for us: what is the development pipeline and the contracted forces,” Ourso says. “Access to Poweredlands for development. This is a major gating issue for today’s industry.”
In the report, Goldman Sachs said supply was about 10% behind 2028 to 2028 despite the expansion of new data center development.
“The lack of capital is not the most pressing bottleneck for AI advancements. It is the force needed to fuel,” wrote Dan Dees, co-head of the bank’s global bank and markets, in the report.
The rarity of electricity has also pushed more players into faraway parts of the country where they traditionally didn’t see many data center development.
In June, data center developer Applied Digital announced that CoreWeave had agreed to lease 250 megawatts of space at its facility under construction in Ellendale, North Dakota.
By August, Applied Digital announced that CoreWeave had triggered its expansion options.
“In my opinion, it shows the fierce demands of the industry as a whole and how competitive it is,” Dede said of CoreWeave’s decision to grow in Ellendale.
