Core Scientific, Inc.

Core Scientific said first-quarter colocation revenue reached a level sufficient to cover operating costs and begin expanding margins. The company is billing 243 MW today, which management said equates to more than $350 million of annualized colocation GAAP revenue. First-quarter SG&A on a cash basis was just over $30 million. Management also said it closed a $3.3 billion CoreWeave project bond at a 7.75% interest rate, with net proceeds of approximately $2.9 billion after closing costs and the required reserve account. Forward-looking, the company expects more than 450 billable MW by the end of the summer and the full 590 MW by early 2027; it also expects to deploy roughly $2 billion of total capex in 2026, including about $700 million for the Hunt County site acquisition and the Polaris acquisition at Muskogee, plus work toward approximately 1 GW of new billable capacity.

Adam Sullivan framed the quarter as proof that Core Scientific has moved from a single-customer buildout into a repeatable AI infrastructure platform. He emphasized that the company is now developing across five sites, has financing in place to advance projects before contracts are finalized, and is using that capital to speed up timelines and keep assets moving toward readiness. His tone was confident and opportunistic, especially on customer demand, saying the company is engaging from a position of strength and will not keep high-value sites off the market longer than necessary.

James Nygaard said Q1 was an inflection point because colocation revenue has now scaled enough to cover operating costs and start widening margins. He highlighted that 243 MW of billing corresponds to more than $350 million of annualized colocation GAAP revenue, noted cash SG&A was just over $30 million, and said that level is a reasonable baseline going forward. He also stressed the financing milestone: the $3.3 billion bond at 7.75% was described as attractive cost of capital, with about $2.9 billion of net proceeds and a structure that allows most proceeds to move to the corporate level for broader growth investments. He added that 2026 capex should be roughly $2 billion, including about $700 million tied to Hunt County and Polaris and the start of work on about 1 GW of new billable capacity.

Analysts focused on why the Pecos/Muskogee exclusivity expired, whether management was effectively restarting with new counterparties, and whether the company is closer to signing a second tenant. Adam Sullivan said the exclusivity ended because the sites were ready to come back to market and three hyperscalers immediately engaged; he also said the company’s existing relationships with those groups mean it is not starting from scratch. Questions also centered on how much capex Core Scientific is willing to spend before leases are signed, behind-the-meter power economics, and labor constraints. Management said it will typically push the first data hall to RFS while securing labor and long-lead equipment, that behind-the-meter deployment should take about 12 to 14 months, and that labor is a key market constraint but one Core Scientific is trying to manage by securing GCs and mobilizing them early.