GoCheckMyCrypto.comCore Scientific lands AMD AI deal as bitcoin mining operation winds down
Core Scientific signed a 15-year, 529 MW lease with AMD for AI data center capacity, generating more than $14 billion in base contracted revenue and expansion rights to 2.5 GW. The company simultaneously terminated its Block ASIC chip agreement and recorded a $41.9 million charge, marking a definitive pivot from bitcoin mining to AI infrastructure.
Core Scientific, one of the largest bitcoin miners by hashrate, has signed a 15-year lease agreement with AMD for 529 megawatts of U.S. AI data center capacity, according to CoinDesk reporting. The deal, which could generate more than $14 billion in base contracted revenue, includes expansion rights allowing AMD to reserve an additional 1,925 megawatts through December 28, 2028, potentially scaling the total partnership to 2.5 gigawatts.
The company is moving decisively away from its prior mining strategy. Core Scientific terminated its agreement to buy bitcoin-mining chips from Block and recorded a $41.9 million charge as a result. The original 2024 Block agreement covered 3-nanometer chips representing roughly 15 exahashes per second of hashrate.
AMD directly leases 377 megawatts across Core Scientific sites in Pecos and Hunt County, Texas, and Muskogee, Oklahoma. An unnamed cloud provider leases another 152 megawatts in Auburn, Alabama, and Dalton, Georgia, under agreements supported by AMD. The capacity is expected to support AMD customer deployments beginning in 2027. AMD received warrants to purchase up to 30 million Core Scientific shares at $23.47 per share, with 6.5 million warrants vesting when the initial leases were signed and additional warrants vesting as further capacity is contracted.
Core Scientific's shift to colocation revenue has already outpaced mining. Colocation revenue generated $136.7 million, representing 83 percent of the company's $164.2 million in second-quarter revenue, according to CoinDesk reporting. Self-mining revenue fell 66 percent to $21.5 million in the same quarter. The AMD agreements lift Core Scientific's leased customer capacity to roughly 1.1 gigawatts, representing more than $24 billion in potential contracted revenue. The company was billing customers for 437 megawatts as of mid-July, equivalent to roughly $635 million in annualized colocation revenue.
Core Scientific held 848 BTC worth $49.7 million on June 30, up from 547 BTC three months earlier, per CoinDesk. However, the company sold 2,385 BTC for $208.2 million in the first quarter of the year. Core Scientific and AMD will collaborate on data-center design and deployment of AMD Instinct GPUs, EPYC processors, and ROCm software. CORZ shares were up 5.6 percent in pre-market trading following the announcement.
The deal locks Core Scientific into a 15-year infrastructure play. Self-mining revenue had already deteriorated significantly before the AMD pivot, suggesting the bitcoin mining business was under structural pressure. The expansion rights are conditional; AMD has the right to reserve additional capacity only through December 28, 2028, leaving future gigawatt scaling uncertain. AI infrastructure deals are rapidly commoditizing and subject to demand swings; Core Scientific's ability to achieve the full $14 billion in revenue depends on sustained AMD customer demand through 2041.
Core Scientific signed a 15-year, 529 MW AMD infrastructure deal with potential $14 billion in base contracted revenue and expansion rights to 2.5 GW after terminating Block's ASIC chip agreement.
Watch whether Core Scientific's remaining bitcoin mining operations close entirely or continue as a minor revenue stream, and track the pace of AMD capacity activation in 2027. If AI infrastructure demand softens or AMD draws down its expansion rights, Core Scientific faces revenue concentration risk on a 15-year contract to a single vendor in a rapidly evolving market.
And that's the way it is.
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