Will CRWV's Core Scientific Buyout Unleash Financial & AI Synergies?

In an effort to modernize the AI and high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure landscape, CoreWeave, Inc. (CRWV) has inked a definitive deal to acquire Core Scientific, Inc. (CORZ) in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $9 billion (as of July 3, 2025). As the AI Hyperscaler deepens its vertical integration strategy, this acquisition is a strategic move to accelerate growth, enhance operational efficiency and achieve long-term market leadership.

CoreWeave will acquire Core Scientific by issuing 0.1235 shares of its Class A common stock for each CORZ share. The transaction, expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2025, values CORZ at $20.40 per share, representing a 66% premium over its unaffected closing price as of June 25, 2025. Post-acquisition, Core Scientific shareholders will own less than 10% of the combined company. By taking ownership of Core Scientific's 1.3 GW power infrastructure footprint, with an additional 1 GW expansion potential, it gains ample room to grow its AI infrastructure. With demand for AI compute soaring, this extra capacity provides a strong long-term advantage.

CoreWeave will immediately eliminate $10 billion in lease obligations across its infrastructure. With $500 million in projected annual cost savings by the end of 2027, the financial potential is significant. CORZ’s capabilities in data center construction, site operations and power procurement complement CoreWeave’s deep expertise in AI and HPC cloud workloads, creating a more vertically integrated and technically diverse company. With the burden of lease commitments off its balance sheet, it unlocks new financing opportunities at a lower cost of capital.

The company continues to double down on acquisitions to power AI advancements across industries, strengthen existing infrastructure and bolster customer engagement, leading to higher revenues and shareholders’ value. In May 2025, CRWV officially bought the AI developer platform, Weights & Biases, as part of its strategy to expand its footprint in high-performance AI cloud infrastructure.

Key Players Competing With CRWV in the AI Space

CoreWeave’s cut-throat rival, Nebius Group N.V. (NBIS), is building a focused AI infrastructure business. Unlike CoreWeave, it hasn’t made big acquisitions but has grown several AI companies in-house. Its portfolio includes Toloka for data labeling, TripleTen for tech education and Avride for self-driving tech. In May 2025, Toloka raised $72 million led by Jeff Bezos’s fund, showing the promise of Nebius’ ventures. The company is relying on organic growth and vertical integration to solidify its position in the AI market.

Microsoft (MSFT) is a major player in AI infrastructure with its Azure cloud platform and global data centers. Its big investment in OpenAI has also given it a strong edge in the AI market. MSFT is further growing its AI infrastructure by forming partnerships and making key investments. Also, in partnership with NVIDIA, Microsoft has announced new AI advancements, including NVIDIA NIM microservices in Azure AI Foundry, enhanced inference for open-source models and serverless GPU support in Azure Container Apps. In the third quarter of fiscal 2025, Microsoft spent $16.7 billion on developing cloud and AI infrastructure, including data centers, servers and networking hardware.

CRWV’s Price Performance and Estimates

Shares of CoreWeave have gained 282.6% year to date compared with the Internet Software industry’s growth of 17.7%.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for CRWV’s earnings for 2025 has been unchanged over the past 30 days.

CRWV currently carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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