Core Scientific : Prepared Remarks Q1 2026

Published: 2026-05-13 11:02:11 ET CORZ

Published on 05/13/2026 at 11:02 am EDT

May c, 202c

Good afternoon and welcome to Core Scientific's first quarter 2026 earnings call.

Before we begin, I need to remind you that statements made on this call other than historical facts are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and are based on our current expectations.

Words such as "anticipates," "estimates," "expects," "intends," and "believes" and similar words and expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ substantially.

For further information on these risks and uncertainties, we encourage you to review the risk factors discussed in the Company's reports on Form 10-Q and 8-K filed today with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the press release and slide presentation contained therein. The forward-looking statements we make today speak as of today, and we do not undertake any obligation to update any such statement to reflect events or circumstances occurring after today.

Today's presentation is available on our website, investors.corescientific.com. The content of this conference call contains information that is accurate only as of today, May 6, 2026.

Joining me today from Core Scientific are our CEO, Adam Sullivan, Chief Operating Officer, Matt Brown, and Chief Financial Officer, Jim Nygaard. We will conduct a question and answer session after management's remarks. We will now begin with remarks from Adam.

Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us.

At Core Scientific, we are building a high-density digital infrastructure platform designed to support the most demanding compute workloads in the market. Over the past year, we've translated that strategy into execution, delivering high-density capacity at scale across multiple states.

Those sites were an important starting point, but our first customer was never Core Scientific's full story. Delivering these initial sites enhances our operating credibility and provides the significant capital foundation we need to scale meaningfully from here.

We have shown clearly our ability to deliver at scale. Across five sites, we are developing one of the largest multi-site AI infrastructure build-outs in the market. We are now earning revenue on approximately 245 megawatts, with another approximately 200 megawatts expected to be earning revenue in the coming months.

Our execution, combined with the favorable structure of our CoreWeave contracts, has enabled our next phase of growth. Today, we closed on a $3.3 billion capital raise supported by that contract, with the proceeds to be used for future growth and the development of projects for other customers. The fact that we have five facilities, fully leased and financed by our tenant is a meaningful differentiator.

We have the ability to push the next phase of development in a disciplined way by securing the land, labor, and equipment to protect timelines and accelerate delivery. As these new projects are leased, we expect opportunities for further financing to continue the cycle of our forward-development, go-to-market strategy.

Our next phase of development has already begun, and late last year we committed existing cash on hand to purchase equipment for our other existing sites. With the new secured financing, we are now accelerating development activity across multiple sites, including Pecos, Muskogee, Hunt, Dalton Phase 3, and Auburn. This positions us differently in the market. We are not waiting for deal negotiations to conclude before advancing sites. With capital in place, we can move early, bringing RFS timelines within the 12 to 14 month timeframe that customers are actively trying to solve for.

We are also scaling our campuses in a repeatable way. Today, we announced a path to approximately 1.5 gigawatts at Muskogee, closely following a similar plan at Pecos.

A key enabler of that scale is power strategy. Customers are increasingly focused on solutions beyond existing grid capacity, including behind-the-meter options. We are proactively positioning our sites to support those needs, including efforts to secure natural gas infrastructure where appropriate to enable future expansion.

Pecos is a clear example. We are actively converting the site from bitcoin mining to

high-density colocation, with construction already underway and a path to RFS within 12 months.

Muskogee is another. We see a path to approximately 1.5 gigawatts of gross power supported by grid expansion, the Polaris acquisition, and behind-the-meter solutions, and we expect to deliver additional data center capacity outside of our current contract in late 2027.

Stepping back, we are executing a repeatable model: secure strategic sites, invest ahead of contracts where appropriate, and create assets that are increasingly compelling as they approach readiness.

That brings me to our commercial progress.

We are engaging customers from a position of strength. Because development is already underway, our timelines are not dependent on contract timing, an important distinction in this market.

As we previously discussed, we were engaged in an exclusivity process with a hyperscaler across Pecos and Muskogee. That exclusivity is now expired, however, three other hyperscalers immediately engaged on those same sites, and we are now in active discussions. This reinforced both the strategic value of these assets and the depth of demand for large-scale, high-density capacity.

It also informed how we approach exclusivity going forward. While it likely remains a necessary part of some deal negotiations, it must include clear milestones. In a market like this, we will not keep high-value assets off the market longer than necessary.

More broadly, our conversations with potential customers have increased significantly since the beginning of the year. Hyperscalers remain our primary focus, and we are also seeing growing engagement from chip makers, AI labs, and neocloud providers.

These emerging customer segments represent meaningful opportunity, though they often require additional credit support. We are actively working with customers and financing partners on structures that can support long-term, financeable commitments.

Stepping back, our position is clear.

We are building a scaled, high-density digital infrastructure platform with a diversified site portfolio. We are deploying capital to secure timelines and accelerate delivery. And we are seeing strong customer demand.

Based on our execution, capital position, and commercial momentum, we are confident in our ability to continue expanding and creating long-term value for our customers and shareholders.

With that, I'll turn the call over to Matt Brown to provide more details on our operations

and development progress.

Thanks Adam.

As we reflect on the first quarter, our operational priorities remained clear: execute on our existing build pipeline, bring capacity online efficiently, and position the business for the next phase of large-scale expansion.

Demand for high-performance compute infrastructure remains strong, and we have focused on aligning our delivery timelines, supply chain readiness, and power strategy to meet that demand.

I'll begin with an update of our CoreWeave-dedicated facilities, where we continue to execute at pace and at scale.

Today, I'm pleased to announce that we have delivered 243 megawatts of billable capacity to CoreWeave. This includes a key milestone with the full turnover of both our Marble, North Carolina and Dalton, Georgia Phase 1 data centers. At Marble, we completed construction and successfully transitioned the entire facility into operations, bringing 65 megawatts of billable capacity online. At Dalton Phase 1, we likewise achieved full site handover and delivered 30 megawatts into service.

These milestones reflect the team's ability to execute efficiently at scale, transition assets seamlessly from construction to revenue generation, and consistently align to customer timelines, all of which remain critical as we continue to move forward.

Across our remaining contracted sites, we will continue delivering billable megawatts over the coming months while scaling execution on the CoreWeave contract, positioning us to deliver more than 450 megawatts billed by the end of the summer, while remaining on track to deliver the full 590 megawatts by early 2027.

Now, turning to our non-CoreWeave developments, where we are advancing our development strategy.

Our Pecos, TX campus is one of our most significant development opportunities, with plans to scale from 300 megawatts to 1.5 gigawatts through a multi-pronged expansion strategy.

At the core is our power roadmap. We've secured an additional 300 megawatts and are advancing a mix of grid-connected and behind-the-meter solutions to support long-term growth. The behind-the-meter strategy leverages low-emission generation and includes the construction of a linear gas pipeline to the campus. Together, these efforts are designed to accelerate time to power, enhance resilience, and reduce supply chain risk while enabling us to meet hyperscale demand.

In parallel, construction of our initial 431,000-square-foot, 185 megawatt facility is progressing from civil work into foundation phases, with precast walls arriving for vertical construction. All long-lead equipment has been secured, helping reduce execution risk and support timelines.

We are also advancing infrastructure for high-density colocation, including redundant fiber capacity and a new interconnect point in Midland, TX linking back to the Pecos campus.

At our Muskogee, Oklahoma campus, today we announced plans for the expansion of the site to 1.5 gigawatts of gross power, or approximately 1 gigawatt of leasable capacity. Similar to Pecos, this expansion will leverage a combination of behind-the-meter infrastructure and utility-supplied power, including the roughly 440 megawatts acquired through the Polaris transaction. With our general contractor already secured and on site, we have begun development of the first 82.5 megawatt building, with initial delivery expected in the second half of 2027.

And finally, turning to our other development sites: Hunt County, Texas; Dalton, Georgia (Phase 3); and Auburn, Alabama. Each continues to advance through key pre-construction milestones and remains on track to meet their initial delivery timelines.

In closing, as we look ahead, we remain confident in our ability to execute against our commitments and capture the opportunities in front of us. The combination of strong demand, a growing portfolio of scaled developments, and continued progress on our power and infrastructure strategies positions us well for the quarters ahead.

With that, I'll turn it over to Jim.

Thanks, Matt.

During the first quarter, we reached an important inflection point as our colocation revenue scaled to a level sufficient to cover operating costs and begin expanding margins. This marks a meaningful milestone in our transition, with colocation now becoming an important driver of our overall financial profile.

Today, we are billing for 243 megawatts, which equates to more than $350 million of annualized colocation GAAP revenue, with significant additional capacity expected to begin billing over the next several months. As a reminder, under GAAP, revenue from the CoreWeave contract is recognized on a straight-line basis over the 12-year lease term, effectively pulling escalators forward.

From a bitcoin mining perspective, we remain focused on optimization and are running that business to help offset contractual power costs as we continue the transition toward high-density colocation. Going forward, we expect mining activity to continue winding down over the course of the year, with a meaningful step down in miners online in the second half. Earlier this year, we monetized a significant portion of our bitcoin holdings and currently retain only a modest amount of bitcoin on the balance sheet.

Moving on to costs, first quarter SG&A on a cash basis was just over $30 million. While we are not providing explicit SG&A guidance, we believe this level represents a reasonable baseline for corporate expenses going forward, with the potential for opportunistic investments to support growth over the next few years.

Separately, you may have noticed that we increased our target cash gross profit margin range for the CoreWeave contract to 80% to 85%, up from our original target of 75% to 80%. We first introduced that target roughly two years ago, and today, we have much greater visibility into the associated cost structure given we are now billing for a meaningful portion of the contracted megawatts.

With that operating backdrop, let me turn to capital formation, where today marked another major milestone for Core Scientific. We closed our previously announced $3.3 billion CoreWeave-project bond financing at a 7.750% interest rate, which we view as highly attractive cost of capital for a financing of this scale. After closing costs and funding the required debt service reserve account, net proceeds were approximately

$2.9 billion.

For additional context, the bonds include a lockbox structure, which is a cash-control mechanism where project revenues are paid directly into a designated account and then applied through the indenture-defined cash waterfall, first to operating expenses, then to debt service, and finally to other uses permitted by the indenture. Unlike a traditional project finance structure, where a lockbox is created to fund the specific project under development, our structure enables the distribution of the vast majority of offering proceeds up to the corporate level to facilitate investments in a variety of new projects outside the box. Going forward, the lockbox will service the debt, secured by CoreWeave-contracted site assets and cash flows. From this perspective, the transaction significantly strengthens our consolidated capital position, validates the quality and predictability of our contracted cash flows, and gives us the ability to execute the next phase of our growth plan with greater flexibility, speed and certainty.

We expect to deploy roughly $2 billion of total capital expenditures in 2026. This includes approximately $700 million for both the Hunt County TX site acquisition, which closed yesterday, and the Polaris acquisition at our Muskogee, OK site announced earlier today, as well as expenditures to begin pre-seeding approximately 1 gigawatt of new billable capacity through long lead-time equipment procurement and various site development and utility support activities across multiple project locations.

We are strategically positioning the business to sign attractive new customer contracts, with capacity outside of CoreWeave available for delivery starting in early 2027. The platform we are building, together with the cost-effective capital we have secured for new project equity investments, is differentiated in the market, and we believe it positions Core Scientific to create meaningful long-term shareholder value.

Lastly, we recently welcomed Jorge Ray as our Chief Accounting Officer, further strengthening our finance and accounting team. Jorge brings valuable accounting and

public company reporting experience, and his leadership will be important as we continue to scale the business and support our next phase of growth.

I'll now turn the call over to the operator for questions.

Disclaimer

Core Scientific Inc. published this content on May 13, 2026, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on May 13, 2026 at 15:01 UTC.