Core Scientific shareholders on Thursday voted down an all-stock acquisition offer from partner and competitor CoreWeave that was valued at the time at $9 billion. They did so following a vote-no recommendation from their largest shareholder, Sina Toussi of Two Seas Capital, a firm that focuses on post-bankruptcy companies. Core Scientific emerged from its bankruptcy in January 2024. Core Scientific, which began as a crypto miner and still is one, shares that early history with AI data center provider ...

Core Scientific and CoreWeave Acquisition Attempt - Core Scientific shareholders rejected a $9 billion all-stock acquisition offer from CoreWeave, influenced by a vote-no recommendation from their largest shareholder, Sina Toussi of Two Seas Capital [1][4] - CoreWeave has transitioned from crypto mining to serving AI workloads, with its market cap increasing from $14 billion to $66 billion since its IPO, reflecting strong investor interest in AI [2] - CoreWeave had previously signed a $10 billion, 12-year contract with Core Scientific for AI services, which was seen as a premium offer compared to Core Scientific's share price at the time [3] Investor Sentiment and Market Dynamics - Investor Toussi believes Core Scientific can independently achieve success similar to CoreWeave, citing rising equity valuations in AI infrastructure as a reason to reject the acquisition offer [4] - Following the rejection of the acquisition, Core Scientific's stock price increased, leading to a market cap of $6.6 billion [4] - The rejection of acquisition bids in pursuit of larger offers indicates a potential AI bubble in the market [7] CoreWeave's Strategic Moves - CoreWeave continues to pursue acquisitions, recently acquiring Marimo, an open-source Jupyter Notebook competitor, for an undisclosed amount, with Marimo having raised approximately $5 million [7] - The acquisition of Marimo aligns with CoreWeave's strategy to enhance its capabilities in AI app development [8]