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Core Scientific Inc. CORZ, one of the world's biggest Bitcoin BTC/USD mining companies, would remember 2024 as a turnaround year.

The resurgence was largely fueled by a recovery in Bitcoin’s price, which had fallen to $16,000 when the company declared bankruptcy in December 2022. Since the recovery, the company has pivoted to a high-performance computing (HPC) model, servicing data center demand for artificial intelligence applications.

Benzinga talked to Adam Sullivan, the company's CEO, about its strategy and the evolving dynamics of the industry in the U.S.

Halving Woes And The Pivot To AI

Sullivan acknowledged the industry's pains, especially after the April halving, that slashed block rewards, a major component of mining revenue, by 50%.

The top executive disclosed that the company’s post-halving strategy, focused on hash price, local power costs, and environmental factors, has successfully maximized fleet performance and profitability

"We conducted extensive scenario analysis to understand the impact of different hash price assumptions on our business."

Sullivan added that the company's HPC strategy was shaped over the last 18 months, as it spotted a supply-demand balance in the high-power data center market.

In contrast to the volatile Bitcoin mining business, Sullivan described the AI business as a “predictable, long-term, and profitable revenue stream.”

Earlier in June, Core Scientific entered into a 12-year contract with Nvidia-backed cloud provider CoreWeave to provide infrastructure for AI use cases.

Sullivan said the company expected $6.7 billion in revenue as a result of the deal, positioning itself as one of the biggest publicly traded data center companies in the U.S.

See Also: PayPal Steps Up Crypto Game, Allows US Merchants To Buy, Sell, And Hold Digital Assets

Historic Deal With Jack Dorsey’s Block In Line With Trump’s “America First” Vision?

Bitcoin mining has received support from Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who wanted all remaining Bitcoins to be mined in the U.S.

Sullivan welcomed support from all elected officials, from the White House to Congress to local legislatures and city councils.

"We believe that Bitcoin and artificial intelligence represent strategic technologies that the United States must support and nurture to ensure continued leadership in the global arena" he said.

Sullivan also talked about Core Scientific's historic mining chip purchase from Jack Dorsey's company Block Inc SQ, departing away from the China-headquartered market leader. Bitmain.

"We believe the new Block ASIC chips will improve our mining economics in terms of initial capital expenditures, ongoing maintenance, and performance," Sullivan stated.

The CEO added that the deal reflected the capabilities of domestic chipmakers, and strong government backing would pave the way for future success.

These insights set the stage for deeper discussions at the upcoming Benzinga Future of Digital Assets event on Nov. 19.

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