Core Scientific Targets Hiked as Analysts Cite AI Power Demand
Analysts raised price targets for Core Scientific, highlighting how the scramble for immediate power access is transforming the data center operator's pivot from Bitcoin mining to AI hosting.
BTIG lifted its price target on Core Scientific to $38 from $33 on June 25, maintaining a Buy rating and pointing to an upside potential exceeding 77%. This followed a June 12 move by Lucid Capital, which reinitiated coverage with a $40 target and a Buy rating, implying an 87% upside.
The bullish revisions are rooted in a fundamental supply constraint within the artificial intelligence sector: power availability. BTIG noted that rapid electricity consumption in data centers showed no signs of abating during the second quarter as a global buildout took shape. The firm argued that companies capable of providing immediate access to power are uniquely positioned to secure lucrative AI colocation contracts.
This dynamic is actively reshaping valuation models across the data center infrastructure group. BTIG tracked five high-performance computing infrastructure contracts signed by public companies in the second quarter alone, prompting the firm to raise pricing targets industry-wide. Demand for assets that can deliver power quickly is intensifying as compute requirements scale.
Core Scientific’s specific appeal to analysts lies in its modular high-performance computing platform, which Lucid Capital described as the company's "second act." The firm highlighted that Core Scientific holds sufficient cash to cover the equity shortfall required to support a 1 gigawatt essential IT load across both its current and future operational sites.
The operator has also taken structural steps to de-risk its revenue profile amid this transition. A short-term lease arrangement involving Hunt County reduces the company's historical reliance on a single tenant. Originally a Bitcoin mining operation, Core Scientific is redirecting its purpose-built, high-density facilities toward third-party GPU cloud and AI colocation services.
For market participants, the analyst upgrades underscore a shifting investment landscape. As AI deployment accelerates, the primary bottleneck is increasingly the physical infrastructure required to power it rather than the chips themselves. Existing data center operators with available power capacity are emerging as critical beneficiaries of the broader technological buildout.
