Core Scientific records a $41.9 million loss for terminating its BTC mining chip purchase contract with Block

PANews July 29, citing Protos, reported that data center operator Core Scientific terminated its BTC mining chip purchase contract with Block, a company owned by Jack Dorsey, at a cost of a $41.9 million loss. Core previously paid Block a $67.9 million advance payment (with $10 million paid in July 2024, $21.3 million paid in January 2025, and $36.6 million paid in January 2026). After terminating the contract, the remaining delivery obligations were canceled, and the advance payment already paid resulted in a loss.

Core chose to terminate the contract because leasing its data centers to AMD would bring higher returns—just one day before the termination, Core signed a 15-year lease covering 529 megawatts with AMD, expected to generate more than $14 billion in contract revenue. Block’s mining chip business is one of the company’s series of commercial failures. Over the past five years, its stock price has fallen 68%. It also wrote down its investment in the Tidal music service by $132.3 million, and Cash App was fined $55 million plus up to $120 million in damages following fraud complaints.