Core Scientific Secures $1 Billion From Morgan Stanley to Accelerate Pivot From Bitcoin Mining to AI

Core Scientific Secures Up to $1 Billion From Morgan Stanley for Pivot From Bitcoin Mining to AI - Decrypt

The company has indicated that its Bitcoin will also finance the shift. Core Scientific's efforts to pivot away from Bitcoin mining are getting a boost from Morgan Stanley, with the company securing up to $1 billion in financing from the bank. The Austin, Texas-based firm signaled in a press release on Thursday that the Wall Street giant had given it permission to borrow up to $500 million under an initial agreement, as it increasingly leans toward providing infrastructure for high-density colocation. The agreement is structured in a way that could allow Core to borrow an additional $500 million, providing the company with funds that could also go toward increasing its physical footprint across additional facilities and securing more power for data centers. "With this additional financing capacity, we can operate decisively by deploying capital to expedite project ready-for-service timelines, making us an even more compelling infrastructure provider for customers," CEO Adam Sullivan said in a statement. The development shows how banks like Morgan Stanley are willing to provide companies like Core with a short-term safety net -- the financing was secured under a 364-day term -- that could also enable them to lean more aggressively into their overall expansion. Sullivan has said that Core's north star involves transitioning away from Bitcoin mining completely over the next three years, using every megawatt available to service technology firms' growing efforts to compete amid the AI boom. The company currently operates seven facilities in the U.S., including one in Texas that the company is actively transitioning away from Bitcoin mining to high-density colocation. Core's stock price edged down 2% to $15.50 on Friday, according to Yahoo Finance. Shares have rallied 61% over the past year, as the company has situated itself amid a growing list of firms involved in Bitcoin mining that increasingly see revenue opportunities elsewhere. Earlier this week, the company indicated that it would likely "monetize substantially all" of its Bitcoin holdings to bankroll its transition, after cashing in 1,900 Bitcoin for $175 million last month. That left under 1,000 Bitcoin remaining in its corporate coffers. The company still generates most of its revenue by mining Bitcoin for itself. That segment generated $41 million in the fourth-quarter sales against $31 million for colocation. In a note published on Tuesday, analysts at investment bank Compass Point reaffirmed a "Buy" rating alongside a $28 per share price target. They underscored their "confidence in Core Scientific's ability to execute and fill leasable sites with investment grade customers."

Core Scientific Lands $500M Morgan Stanley Credit Line, Expandable to $1B

The Bitcoin miner and data center operator said the financing will support infrastructure tied to high-density computing workloads, including artificial intelligence and HPC. Bitcoin mining and data center company Core Scientific has closed a $500 million loan facility with Morgan Stanley, with the option to expand the financing to as much as $1 billion. According to a company announcement on Thursday, the financing may be used for general corporate purposes tied to building and expanding data center assets, including equipment purchases, real estate acquisition and securing additional power agreements. The company operates large-scale data centers in several US states, including Texas, Georgia and North Carolina, hosting both Bitcoin (BTC) mining equipment and other high-density computing workloads. The 364-day facility carries interest at the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR) plus 2.5% and includes an accordion feature that allows total commitments to increase by another $500 million. Core Scientific currently derives most of its revenue from Bitcoin mining but is converting "most" of its data center footprint to support AI-related and other high-density computing workloads. The announcement comes days after the company's shares fell following a fourth-quarter earnings miss, as crypto mining income dropped to $42.2 million, nearly 50% lower than the same quarter a year earlier. Related: Ex-OpenAI researcher's hedge fund reveals big Bitcoin miner bets in new SEC filing Core Scientific filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in December 2022 after falling Bitcoin prices, rising energy costs and losses tied to crypto lender Celsius strained its finances. In January 2024, it emerged from bankruptcy and relisted its shares on Nasdaq after completing a court-approved restructuring. Following the restructuring, Core Scientific began repurposing parts of its data center infrastructure to support artificial intelligence and high-performance computing (HPC) workloads alongside its Bitcoin mining operations. That shift accelerated in June 2024, when the company signed a 12-year agreement with AI cloud provider CoreWeave to supply data center capacity for HPC. A year later, CoreWeave sought to deepen the relationship through a proposed acquisition, agreeing in July 2025 to buy Core Scientific in an all-stock transaction valued at about $9 billion. However, the merger failed to gain sufficient shareholder approval during a vote in October and did not move forward. Several other Bitcoin mining companies have also begun repurposing their infrastructure to support AI and HPC workloads in recent months. In July, Hive Digital Technologies said it was expanding into HPC, building an AI infrastructure business that it expects could reach $100 million in annual revenue. About a month later, TeraWulf signed 10-year colocation agreements with AI infrastructure company Fluidstack valued at $3.7 billion, with Google backing about $1.8 billion of the lease obligations.