In less than two years, Core Scientific transformed from a bankrupt cryptocurrency miner into a $9 billion acquisition target, driven by the surging demand for electricity to power artificial intelligence. The company’s pivot to becoming a key player in the AI-driven data center boom has made access to reliable, low-cost power a critical asset—and a major driver of its rising value. Core Scientific’s recent merger with CoreWeave, a publicly traded data center firm valued at around $60 billion, was initially seen as a strategic move to combine resources and scale. The all-stock deal valued Core Scientific at approximately $9 billion. However, the transaction is now under threat after Two Seas Capital, one of Core Scientific’s largest shareholders, urged investors to reject the deal, arguing that $9 billion undervalues the company’s potential. The shareholder emphasized Core Scientific’s unique advantages: early-mover status, significant scale, and proven access to low-cost electricity—key assets in an industry where power availability is the primary bottleneck. “Core Scientific has a critical first-mover advantage, significant scale and ready access to low-cost power, which we believe positions the company to emerge as a clear leader and compound growth for years to come,” the firm stated in a draft proxy letter. The merger would have expanded CoreWeave’s capacity to over 2 gigawatts—equivalent to about a third of New York City’s average daily electricity use. But the deal is now in jeopardy, as investor skepticism grows over whether the valuation reflects the true value of power access. This tension underscores a broader industry crisis: while demand for data centers is skyrocketing, the power grid cannot keep pace. According to CBRE, the construction pipeline for new data centers in top U.S. markets dropped 17.5% in the first half of 2025 compared to the same period the previous year—despite strong demand. “It is not a lack of demand, it's a lack of supply, specifically utility power,” said Pat Lynch, global head of CBRE’s data center solutions team. McKinsey projects that data center power demand will reach 80 gigawatts by 2030—more than triple current levels—with $2.8 trillion expected to be spent on infrastructure by the end of the decade. This growth has fueled a wave of M&A activity. In 2025 alone, $46.1 billion in data center deals have closed, with $34 billion more pending—potentially setting a record for the year. Investors are prioritizing companies with massive power portfolios. Apollo recently acquired a majority stake in Stream, which controls over 4 gigawatts of power. Meanwhile, Snowhawk and Nuveen bought a stake in Prime, a data center operator with a 4 gigawatt roadmap and over a gigawatt of deliverable power between 2025 and 2028. Nuveen’s Biff Ourso highlighted that power is the central factor in investment decisions: “It’s a critical piece of the equation for us: what is the development pipeline and what is the contracted power. Access to powered land for development—that is the big gating issue for the industry today.” Goldman Sachs warns that even with aggressive development, supply will fall short of demand by about 10% annually through 2028, largely due to grid constraints. “A lack of capital is not the most pressing bottleneck for AI progress—it's the power needed to fuel it,” said Dan Dees, co-head of global banking and markets at the bank. As a result, companies are moving to remote, underdeveloped areas with abundant power. CoreWeave recently leased 250 megawatts in Ellendale, North Dakota, with an option to expand by another 150 megawatts—highlighting how competitive the race for power has become. “It’s illustrative of the intense demands across the industry and how competitive it is,” said H.C. Wainwright analyst Kevin Dede. In this high-stakes environment, access to electricity isn’t just an operational advantage—it’s the foundation of value. For companies like Core Scientific, power isn’t just energy. It’s currency.