CoreWeave has abandoned its planned $9 billion all-stock takeover of crypto miner Core Scientific after shareholders voted against the deal, bringing an end to months of negotiations between two of the most closely watched companies in the emerging AI infrastructure space.

The decision, announced Thursday, followed Core Scientific’s shareholder meeting earlier in the day, where preliminary results showed the proposal failed to gain the required approval. In a statement, CoreWeave said it “respects the views of Core Scientific stockholders and looks forward to continuing our commercial partnership.”

The merger, announced in July, was supposed to give CoreWeave access to Core Scientific’s vast network of energy-rich data centers… prime real estate for training large AI models. But the deal drew fire almost immediately. Investors worried that the fixed exchange ratio would leave Core Scientific shareholders exposed to CoreWeave’s falling share price, which has slid since the summer.

Two Seas Capital, Core Scientific’s largest active shareholder, led the campaign against the deal, calling the sale process “flawed” and the valuation too low. Proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services joined in, recommending that investors vote no, arguing that Core Scientific had regained its footing since restructuring last year.

The message landed. Core Scientific shareholders voted down the proposal Thursday morning, forcing CoreWeave to abandon its second failed acquisition attempt in less than six months. (A June all-cash offer also collapsed.)

Markets wasted no time weighing in… Core Scientific’s stock climbed after the vote, while CoreWeave’s dropped nearly 5%.

Founded in 2017, CoreWeave has quickly become one of the most talked-about “neocloud” companies… building data centers tailor-made for AI workloads. The company operates 33 facilities across the U.S. and Europe, counts OpenAI, Microsoft, and Meta among its customers, and holds prized access to Nvidia’s high-end GPUs… the silicon everyone else is scrambling to get their hands on.

Even so, analysts say the company’s breakneck growth comes with risks. Some see CoreWeave as a future giant of AI infrastructure; others point to heavy borrowing and dependence on a small group of clients as potential weak spots.

As for CoreWeave, the collapse of the deal is a chance to regroup. With steady revenue from clients (and preferred access to Nvidia’s sought-after chips) the company remains a central player in the AI buildout. With that said, the market’s response suggests investors are watching more closely how quickly the company spends to keep up its lead.

At the time of publishing this article, Stocks.News holds positions in Microsoft and Meta as mentioned in the article.