Core Scientific shareholders on Thursday voted down an all-stock acquisition offer from partner and competitor CoreWeave, which was valued at $9 billion at the time of the proposal. The rejection followed a recommendation from Core Scientific's largest shareholder, signaling divergent views on the company's valuation and its future in the expanding artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure market.
The decision to reject the bid was primarily influenced by Sina Toussi of Two Seas Capital, a firm specializing in companies post-bankruptcy. Core Scientific itself emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January 2024. Toussi's opposition letter indicated a belief in Core Scientific's independent growth potential, stating, "investment in AI infrastructure has accelerated, driving equity valuations of Core Scientific’s peers to ever-greater heights." He further questioned the offer's valuation, asking, "Why would anyone vote for a transaction worth a mere $16.40 per share?" Following the news, Core Scientific's stock increased, bringing its market capitalization to $6.6 billion.
CoreWeave, which initially operated as a crypto miner similar to Core Scientific, has since largely transitioned its operations to serve AI workloads. Supported by investor and partner Nvidia, CoreWeave's market capitalization has seen substantial growth, reportedly rising from $14 billion to $66 billion, reflecting significant investor interest in AI-related assets. Prior to the failed acquisition attempt, CoreWeave had secured a $10 billion, 12-year contract with Core Scientific for the utilization of its facilities in AI services.
Following the rejection of its Core Scientific bid, CoreWeave proceeded with another strategic acquisition. On Thursday, the company announced it had acquired Marimo, an open-source Jupyter Notebook competitor, for an undisclosed sum. PitchBook estimates Marimo had raised approximately $5 million. Python notebooks are development tools that integrate code, rich media, and explanatory text, commonly used in interactive data analysis and AI application development. This acquisition aligns with CoreWeave's reported strategy to expand its services beyond AI hosting into AI application building.
