AI mania tanks CoreWeave’s Core Scientific acquisition; it buys Python notebook Marimo

Core Scientific shareholders Thursday Vote down An all-stock acquisition offer from partner and competitor CoreWeave valued it at $9 billion at the time.

They did so following a no-vote recommendation from their largest shareholder, Sina Tousi of Two Seas Capital, a firm that focuses on post-bankruptcy companies. The original scientific emerging from its bankruptcy In January 2024.

Core Scientific, which started as a crypto miner and still is one, shares that early history with AI data center provider CoreWave, which also Began as a miner.

But with CoreWeave, Investor and partner NvidiaNow AI has evolved to serve workloads. Since its IPO, its stock has risen from a $14 billion market cap to $66 billion today (about $140 per share) as investors see it as a way to get in on the AI ​​action. It is spending those shares on acquisitions.

CoreWave has already signed a $10 billion, 12-year deal with Core Scientific to use its facilities for AI services, even as it nailed down a deal it announced in July to buy the company outright. The offer was a premium to Core Scientific’s share price at the time.

But investor Tousi thinks Core Scientific itself could become another CoreWave. “Since the transaction was announced in July, investment in AI infrastructure has accelerated, driving Core Scientific’s peer equity valuation even higher,” he wrote. In his letter of opposition. “Why would anyone vote for a transaction worth only $16.40 per share?”

So the investors rejected the deal and CoreWeave walked away. Core Scientific’s stock rose on the news, and the company now trades at a market cap of $6.6 billion.

Investors rejecting acquisition bids for larger offers is another sign that we’re in — or at least in — an AI bubble.

Meanwhile, CoreWeave is still shopping. It turned around on Thursday Marimo acquisitionAn open source Jupyter notebook competitor, for an undisclosed sum. Pitchbook estimates Marimo has raised about $5 million.

Python Notebooks are dev tools that combine code, rich media, and explanatory text into a single, shareable file. They are often used for interactive data analysis as well as AI app development, helping CoreWave as it tries to advance the stack from hosting to AI app building.