Core Scientific to Expand Pecos Campus Capacity to 1.5 GW for AI Data Center Development

Core Scientific (NASDAQ: CORZ) is laying out a significantly expanded power roadmap at its flagship Pecos, Texas campus, aiming to scale the site to roughly 1.5 gigawatts of gross capacity — positioning it among the larger emerging AI data center hubs tied to former Bitcoin mining infrastructure.

The company said the target would translate into about 1.0 GW of leasable power for high-density computing workloads, marking a step change from the 300 megawatts currently deployed at the site for Bitcoin mining.

The announcement builds on Core Scientific’s broader pivot toward AI and high-performance computing, as miners increasingly repurpose existing power assets amid a prolonged downturn in mining economics.

At Pecos, the company has already begun converting its mining operations into an AI-ready campus. Core said the first data hall has reached a construction milestone with foundational work completed and precast walls arriving on-site, signaling the start of vertical construction. Initial capacity is expected to come online in early 2027.

Alongside the physical buildout, Core Scientific disclosed it has secured an additional 300 MW of power under contract with its utility provider. The company is also advancing a behind-the-meter power strategy — separate from its previously disclosed leasing pipeline — that could further expand capacity beyond current projections.

To support the expansion, Core has acquired more than 200 acres of additional land around the Pecos site.

The scale-up underscores how Bitcoin mining campuses, originally designed for flexible, energy-intensive workloads, are increasingly being repositioned as large-scale AI infrastructure. In many cases, these sites already hold key advantages — including grid interconnection, transmission access, and operational expertise — that are becoming bottlenecks for new data center development.

Core Scientific’s Pecos expansion also ties into its previously announced hosting agreement with AI cloud provider CoreWeave (NASDAQ: CRWV), which has become a central pillar of the company’s transformation strategy. The last week's Miner Weekly broke down how that buildout — backed by billions in financing — highlights a growing disconnect between headline capital raises and the pace at which new megawatts translate into revenue-generating infrastructure.

The latest power expansion plan suggests Core is moving to close that gap by securing additional capacity and land ahead of demand, while layering in alternative power solutions to accelerate deployment timelines.

Chief Executive Officer Adam Sullivan said the company’s approach leverages its control over power, infrastructure, and operations to speed up execution in a market where access to electricity has become one of the primary constraints on AI growth.

The announcement comes as competition for large-scale power continues to intensify across U.S. power markets, with developers racing to lock in gigawatt-scale capacity for AI workloads — often years before construction is complete.