Core Scientific has inked a deal with AMD to supply AI computing infrastructure, marking a sharp turn away from its bitcoin mining roots. The move comes as the company terminates its existing ASIC agreement with Block, the payments firm formerly known as Square.
What changed
The new AMD agreement covers the deployment of AMD's Instinct MI300X accelerators across Core Scientific's data centers. The company will offer AI cloud services to enterprise customers, effectively competing with the likes of CoreWeave and Lambda. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Separately, Core Scientific said it has ended its ASIC supply deal with Block. That agreement, announced in 2024, had been aimed at developing custom bitcoin mining chips. The termination suggests the miner is reallocating capital and data center capacity toward the higher-margin AI business.
Core Scientific is one of the largest publicly traded bitcoin miners in North America. Its pivot to AI reflects a broader trend: miners with access to cheap power and existing data center infrastructure are repurposing facilities to serve the booming AI compute market. The AMD deal gives Core Scientific a direct line to the latest GPU hardware, bypassing the volatile mining ASIC market.
The Block termination also signals that the company sees more near-term value in AI than in custom mining silicon. Block had been developing a 3nm mining chip, but Core Scientific's exit leaves that project without a major customer.
Core Scientific expects to begin deploying the AMD hardware in the fourth quarter of 2026. The company will need to secure additional financing and customer contracts to fill the capacity. It also faces competition from other miners making similar pivots, including Hut 8 and Riot Platforms.
The Block ASIC termination is effective immediately. Core Scientific did not say whether it will take a write-down on any prepayments or inventory related to the deal.
