Mining units at a bitcoin mining facility in Texas. Photographer: Jordan Vonderhaar/Bloomberg

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Artificial intelligence (AI) is hungry for computing power, and bitcoin miners are willing to repurpose your infrastructure can profit handsomely.

Core Scientific, one of the largest publicly traded bitcoin miners, emerged from bankruptcy in January and spent June with its shares soaring, more than doubling to $9.57 per share, with a 10% increase on Wednesday. fair, announcing an increase in computing capacity. for high-performance computing (HPC) that underpins AI operations.

Core revealed new details about the 300 megawatts of HPC infrastructure available at an investor day event that will be in addition to the 200 megawatts committed under a recent deal with AI hyperscaler CoreWeave. This deal could generate $3.5 billion in revenue over the life of a 12-year contract, which has two five-year extension options, with annualized profit margins in the 75-80% range, according to CEO Adam Sullivan.

“Considering the additional 300 megawatts of HPC infrastructure, the full 500 megawatts could generate more than $8 billion in revenue over a 12-year period,” said CEO Adam Sullivan. “We are building a very application-specific digital infrastructure. It is very difficult to find scale in this sector. It’s even harder to find scale for the newest generation of graphics processing units (GPUs), so the target customer base is people who are building not only some of the biggest AI models, but also other applications that require the arrival of newest generation of GPUs on the market. ”

Following this announcement, the company’s shares rose almost 10% to $9.57.

The CoreWeave deal highlights the growing power demands of AI vendors. “Think about the immense demand for high-performance computing and the limited power available that can be deployed quickly,” Kevin Dede, an analyst at HC Wainwright, told Forbes. “The Core has 1.2 gigawatts of power, much of which is already built and some of which can be converted to handle HPC loads. For AI companies, getting processors up and running quickly can make all the difference. Helping to develop infrastructure can ease the financial burden while speeding up the process.”

Sullivan said at Wednesday’s event that more than 50 companies initially vied for CoreWeave’s spot. CoreWeave likes Core Scientific’s prospects so much that it offered to buy the entire company on June 3 for $5.75 per share, or about $1 billion, an offer rejected three days later as “significantly undervaluing” the goal.

Yesterday, Compass Point analyst Joe Flynn issued a Buy rating on Core Scientific shares with a price target of $12.50. “Overall, we believe the stock is currently in the process of being revalued and see continued upside potential from additional HPC announcements (500MW total potential target price of $17.50) and view CORZ as a potential target of withdrawal given that CoreWeave recently offered $5.75/share (an offer that was recently rejected by the board of directors for undervaluing the company) and the power needs/constraints of AI computers,” Flynn wrote.

Core Scientific managed to emerge from bankruptcy after a recovery in cryptocurrency prices allowed it to cut $400 million in debt, giving creditors an equity stake in the reorganized company. The company’s performance largely depends on its ability to deliver infrastructure in a timely manner, but for now, its projects are coming online faster than anticipated, BTIG analysts wrote in a research note to customers in May.

“We really think of Core Scientific’s investment thesis as a unique opportunity driven by digital infrastructure in the space that is benefiting from the expansion of AI computing that we are seeing today,” Sullivan said on Wednesday. “We are looking to build a much more balanced business that offers strong, high visibility of recurring revenue with exposure not just to bitcoin mining but also the upside potential of AI.”

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