Bernstein Remains Optimistic on Core Scientific Amid Market Turbulence
Despite a significant drop of 30% in shares earlier this week, Bernstein continues to express confidence in Core Scientific (CORZ). This decline followed a challenge from DeepSeek, a Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) startup, which questioned the valuation of bitcoin (BTC) miners as data center operations. Bernstein’s latest research report highlights that this downturn has resulted in Core Scientific’s stock being available at a substantial discount.
According to the report, Core Scientific stands out as the “leader of the pack” among AI-focused miners, boasting an impressive 1.3 gigawatt (GW) of available power supply and a strategic 12-year AI partnership with CoreWeave. The analysts, led by Gautam Chhugani, emphasize that “bitcoin miners have a 12-18 month finite window to build a hybrid data center business, while the hyperscaler capital expenditure (capex) remains consistent.”
Bernstein further asserts that Core Scientific is on course to unveil its first cluster of data centers in the first half of this year, alongside ongoing efforts to acquire and develop new power sites. Currently, the stock is trading at valuations more closely aligned with bitcoin mining rather than traditional data center valuations, despite the fact that approximately 70% of its capacity is designated for AI applications.
With an outperform rating on Core Scientific’s shares, Bernstein has set a price target of $17. In early trading, the stock saw a modest increase of 3.8%, reaching $11.90.
