Core Scientific has taken control of roughly 440 megawatts of in-service, grid-connected power in Oklahoma that belonged to bitcoin miner Polaris DS and intends to run it as high-density colocation for artificial intelligence workloads.
The Nasdaq-listed company completed the Polaris DS acquisition on August 13, paying approximately $444.3 million in cash for capacity next to its existing Muskogee site.
Deal Closed August 13
Polar Merger Sub LLC, a wholly owned Core Scientific subsidiary, merged into Polaris DS LLC on August 13, with Polaris surviving as a wholly owned subsidiary, according to a Form 8-K the company filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The seller was Top Access Enterprises Limited, a Hong Kong company that was Polaris’s sole owner. Altair LLC, an Oklahoma company, joined the merger agreement solely for the purposes of its indemnification article.
The capacity sits under existing electric service agreements with Oklahoma Gas & Electric, according to the company’s press release. A portion of the purchase price was withheld from the closing payment and placed in escrow to secure the seller’s indemnification obligations.
High-density colocation is a data center service that concentrates a large number of servers into a small physical footprint, requiring more electrical power and heavier cooling than conventional hosting.
Price Closed $23.3 Million Above the May Figure
Core Scientific announced the agreement on May 6 at an aggregate purchase price of approximately $421 million in cash. The 8-K filed on closing puts the price paid at approximately $444.3 million, a difference of $23.3 million, and states that figure remains subject to customary post-closing purchase price adjustments.
The contingency attached in May is unchanged. The price rises by a further $40 million in cash if an additional 40 megawatts of firm electric capacity becomes available to Polaris before December 31, 2026. That sets the potential total at approximately $484.3 million, against the $461 million ceiling implied at the announcement.
Core Scientific deposited $120 million into an interest-bearing escrow account when the agreement was signed, to be credited against the purchase price at closing, with $5 million payable to the seller as liquidated damages under certain termination scenarios.
Campus Adjoins Core Scientific’s Existing Muskogee Site
Polaris operated a 40-acre campus with its own electrical substation, adjacent to Core Scientific’s existing Muskogee data center campus. The company said in May that the capacity was actively being utilized and that the acquisition would accelerate its timeline for delivering new capacity to future customers.
Core Scientific has begun construction on a second, unleased building of approximately 82.5 megawatts on the campus. The company said at closing that the next roughly 82 MW is on track for delivery in the second half of 2027; the May announcement gave the fourth quarter of 2027.
The company has secured approximately 250 acres of land for the planned expansion, and said load studies to expand grid-connected capacity were under way. It has also described a behind-the-meter plan as part of the expansion, referring to power generated on site rather than drawn from the public grid.
Company Targets 1.5 GW at the Site
Core Scientific set out a strategy in May to scale the Muskogee campus to approximately 1.5 gigawatts of gross power, or roughly 1.0 gigawatt of leasable power.
Chief executive Adam Sullivan said the acquisition is another example of expanding the company’s power portfolio to support long-term growth, and that site acquisitions this year have added more than 600 megawatts of leasable power. He said in May that the approach in Muskogee combines acquisitions, development expertise, and power solutions to unlock gigawatt-scale capacity.
The transaction was funded using existing liquidity, according to the May announcement. Core Scientific issued a $3.3 billion offering of 7.75% senior secured notes due 2031 and secured $1 billion in loans from JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley earlier this year.
Mining Output Down 45% as Colocation Scales
Polaris was a bitcoin mining operation. Core Scientific is converting and expanding former bitcoin mining facilities across Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, and Oklahoma to support high-density colocation for AI and compute-intensive workloads.
Core Scientific mined 45% less bitcoin in the first quarter of 2026 than a year earlier, which the company attributed to the continued strategic shift to its colocation business and an 18% fall in the average bitcoin price. It reported a net loss of $347 million for the quarter and said it was billing for 243 MW of capacity, representing roughly $350 million in average annualized colocation revenue on a GAAP basis. The Crypto Times reported the results in May.
The company has set out a total gross power pipeline of approximately 4.5 GW, including planned 1.5 GW expansions at both its Muskogee campus and its Pecos, Texas site.
Bitcoin mining companies have signed more than $90 billion in AI infrastructure deals covering roughly 3.7 GW of power capacity, according to Bernstein research The Crypto Times covered in May.
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