Core Scientific beats on revenue, posts net loss in second quarter
Quick Take
- Bitcoin miner Core Scientific posted a net loss of $861.7 million in the second quarter after goodwill, digital asset impairments.
- Revenue came in at $164 million, better than analysts expectations.
The bitcoin miner's $164 million in revenue topped the $162 million that analyst surveyed by Factset was expecting. Adjusted earnings per share of 18 cents also beat. Analysts were expecting 13 cents a share.
"With enhanced liquidity from bitcoin sales and our committed equity facility, line of sight to improved hosting margins and manageable principal and interest payments on our liabilities, we remain well positioned to navigate current market conditions and emerge from these markets a larger, stronger and more profitable company," said CEO Mike Levitt.
The miner sold 7,202 BTC in June — 89.4% percent of the bitcoin holdings it had at the end of the previous month. That money was mostly used for equipment payments, capital investments in additional data center capacity and scheduled repayment of debt, the company said then.
Core Scientific mined 3,365 BTC, by about 5% from the previous quarter, despite having curtailed power for 8,157 megawatt-hours in July, amid a heatwave in Texas. About 15% of its footprint is located in Texas, the company said last month.
That increase was mainly driven by the expansion of the company's self-mining hash rate to 10.3 exahash per second (EH/s), from 8.3 EH/s at the end of March.
The company had not earned any revenue by curtaling power in Texas, said Levitt, unlike other miners such as Riot, which earned $9.5 million in power credits in July by cutting energy.
The CEO said that Core Scientific has run into issues in Georgia due to the "variability of nat gas pricing," acknowledge that this location perhaps "wasn’t the best decision." Going forward, the company will be looking for "more efficient and predictable power."
Extreme heat across the south impacted power costs in the second quarter and the company now expects to the average price for the year to come in at $0.05 to $0.055 per kilowatt hour, Sterling said.
Revenue from hosting was $38.9 million in the second quarter. Levitt stressed the company's focus in "making sure hosting business is a profitable business," as it has less revenues coming from reselling machines.
Core Scientific maintained its hash rate target for 2022 at between 30 and 32 EH/s after having lowered that expectation in its first quarter earning report from between 40 and 42 EH/s.
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