Core Scientific's $14B AMD Deal: The End of the Mining Era

Core Scientific has just inked a massive partnership with AMD worth $14 billion in base contracted revenue. The deal covers 529 megawatts of AI data center capacity across the US, with options to expand to 2.5 gigawatts by the end of 2028. Deployments kick off in 2027.

The geography matters. AMD directly leased 377 MW across sites in Pecos and Hunt County, Texas, and Muskogee, Oklahoma. Another cloud provider grabbed 152 MW in Auburn, Alabama, and Dalton, Georgia under AMD-backed agreements. This isn't small-scale dabbling—it's continental infrastructure.

AMD also got equity skin in the game. Warrants to buy 30 million Core Scientific shares at $23.47 each, with 6.5 million vesting upfront and more vesting as capacity gets locked in. The setup aligns incentives perfectly. Both sides win if the buildout happens.

But here's what makes this genuinely significant: Core Scientific's revenue is already reshaping itself. In Q2, colocation brought in $136.7 million—that's 83% of $164.2 million in total revenue. Self-mining? Down 66% to $21.5 million. The numbers don't lie.

The company also just terminated a deal with Block for bitcoin-mining chips. That came with a $41.9 million charge. The chips were 3-nanometer processors representing roughly 15 exahashes per second. Walking away from that hardware roadmap signals one thing clearly: mining is no longer the future.

What's fascinating is how Core Scientific is actually harvesting its bitcoin, not reinvesting in more. The company held 848 BTC worth $49.7 million on June 30, up from 547 BTC three months earlier. But it sold 2,385 BTC for $208.2 million in Q1. Liquidating the accumulated bitcoin to fund infrastructure buildout instead of chasing mining gains—that's strategic clarity.

This isn't unique to Core Scientific. CoreWeave abandoned mining entirely. Hive Digital, Northern Data, Applied Digital, Iris Energy, Mawson, Crusoe—they're all pivoting. Some straddling both worlds still, others making a clean break. The entire sector is reshuffling.

The AMD deal validates a simple thesis: long-duration, fixed-revenue AI infrastructure contracts beat volatile commodity mining any day. Core Scientific already has 437 MW of billing customers as of mid-July, equivalent to roughly $635 million in annualized colocation revenue. They've proved they can build and run world-scale data centers.

That capability commands premium valuations now.

Source & further reading:

• Core Scientific lands AMD AI deal as bitcoin mining operation winds down — CoinDesk
• Coinbase wants to be Canada’s ‘everything exchange,’ but says clearer rules are needed first — CoinDesk
• 'Anything remotely dovish' from Fed could be good for bitcoin, says analyst — CoinDesk
• Ondo drops tokenized asset blockchain plans for private, high-speed trading network — CoinDesk
• Wall Street veteran Don Wilson says regulators are getting perps all wrong — CoinDesk
• AMD Secures AI Data Center Capacity From Core Scientific in $14B Power Play — TechTimes
• Core Scientific Expands AI-Focused Data Center Partnership with AMD — TipRanks
• Core Scientific Inks $14 Billion AMD Deal as AI Revenue Doubles, Bitcoin Mining Fades — BigGo Finance
• Core Scientific's AI Pivot Gets AMD Backing — Benzinga
• The crypto data center pivot to AI — Data Center Dynamics