On August 14, 2026, Core Scientific, Inc. (NASDAQ:CORZ) completed its acquisition of Polaris DS for roughly $444 million in cash. It is adding about 440 megawatts of grid-connected power capacity in Oklahoma as part of its push to expand its Muskogee campus to 1.5 gigawatts of gross power.
Why This Matters
Core Scientific keeps buying power capacity to feed AI data center demand. It is building on a business it already reshaped from bitcoin mining.
That raises the real question: is this string of acquisitions building a genuinely differentiated AI infrastructure company or piling up debt-funded power capacity ahead of confirmed demand?
Photo from Nextpower website
The Bull Case
CEO Adam Sullivan said the deal is “another example of how we are strategically expanding our power portfolio,” noting the company has added more than 600 megawatts of leasable power through site acquisitions this year alone. Core Scientific, Inc. (NASDAQ:CORZ) is already contracted to deliver the next roughly 82 megawatts at Muskogee to a customer starting in the second half of 2027. The company also signed a deal with AMD in July. It gave AMD access to more than 500 megawatts of AI-ready data center capacity starting in 2027, expandable to 2.5 gigawatts. AMD received market-priced warrants to purchase Core Scientific stock as part of the arrangement.
The Bear Case
Core Scientific, Inc. (NASDAQ:CORZ) is still repurposing former bitcoin-mining sites into AI hosting capacity, a shift that isn’t fully complete. The company hasn’t disclosed the financing terms behind its acquisition spree, including this latest $444 million deal. Competition for power and data center capacity has intensified sharply, with AMD, Nvidia, and other chipmakers signing similar megawatt-scale deals across multiple providers. It means Core Scientific’s newly acquired capacity might not stay rare or valuable for long.
Insider Monkey’s Hedge Fund Data
Core Scientific, Inc. (NASDAQ:CORZ) was held by 81 hedge funds as of Q1 2026, up from 76. Among other “bitcoin miners that turned into AI infrastructure,” Riot Platforms was held by 49 hedge funds, down from 55, and CleanSpark by 37, up from 32.
Conclusion
Core Scientific, Inc. (NASDAQ:CORZ) is genuinely converting old mining sites into profitable AI data centers. However, its fast buying spree forces investors to trust that the company can quickly find paying customers for every new site it buys.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
