Ignoring shareholder opposition, CoreWeave insists on a $9 billion acquisition of Core Scientific "without raising the price"

According to Zhitong Finance APP, despite opposition from major shareholders regarding the acquisition deal, CoreWeave (CRWV.US) stated that it will not raise its $9 billion offer for data center service provider Core Scientific Inc. The company's CEO, Michael Intrator, said on Tuesday, "We firmly believe that the current offer is reasonable for the company. If other companies are willing to step in, let them."

CoreWeave is expanding its cloud service capacity through multiple acquisitions and adding new products and services. In July of this year, the company agreed to acquire Core Scientific for $9 billion and has also completed several small-scale acquisitions in areas such as reinforcement learning and industrial artificial intelligence.

Before the shareholder vote on the deal, some large investors in Core Scientific publicly opposed CoreWeave's offer, stating that the valuation is too low. On Monday, Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. recommended that Core Scientific's investors reject the offer.

"We still believe this deal is reasonable. The final decision will be made by a shareholder vote, but you won't see us raising the offer or increasing the price," Intrator added.

CoreWeave provides AI computing power support for companies like OpenAI and Microsoft (MSFT.US) and is currently working to diversify its customer base. Last month, the company reached a partnership agreement with Meta Platforms (META.US) worth up to $14.2 billion. The company, headquartered in Livingston, New Jersey, stated that Microsoft contributed over 70% of its sales in the second quarter of this year.

Intrator indicated that he expects new customers to enter the market, helping the company diversify its customer base. "But it won't be that 20,000 customers all come to develop foundational models," he said. "Things won't develop that way at all."

CoreWeave belongs to the emerging "neoclouds" camp, which specializes in renting out the use of top AI chips. Its competitors include Nebius Group (NBIS.US) and Nscale Global Holdings. Since its initial public offering (IPO) in March of this year, CoreWeave's stock price has risen over 200%, driven by fierce competition among large tech companies to develop cutting-edge AI models, which has spurred a surge in demand for computing power.

The company also reached a $6.3 billion agreement with shareholder NVIDIA (NVDA.US), in which NVIDIA agreed to purchase CoreWeave's excess computing power that is not being used by customers. In the context of cloud service providers competing to expand, this agreement helps strengthen CoreWeave's financial position and reduce the risk of unsold computing power Despite most AI companies, including CoreWeave, still being in a loss-making state, tech giants continue to invest billions of dollars in data centers and advanced AI chips. This investment frenzy has raised market concerns about a "trillion-dollar AI bubble."