Core Scientific appointed Adam Sullivan chief executive officer on August 4, 2023. Sullivan moved up from the president's role he had held since joining the company earlier that year1. The company's own release said his “contributions as President have strengthened the organization and enhanced its operational excellence.” Mike Levitt, the outgoing CEO, would continue as chairman of the board. CoinCodeCap reported on August 5, 2023, that Sullivan was replacing "co-founder Mike Levitt in the role"2.
One of Core Scientific's 8 leadership moves on the record came in 2023
Leadership moves CryptoLately has verified at Core Scientific, by year
- 2023: 1
- 2024, 2025, 2026
Moves: The Moves Ledger, CryptoLately's record of verified leadership moves, Oct. 3, 2016 to Oct. 2, 2026.
Read the chart as a table
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| 2023 | 1 |
| 2024 | 1 |
| 2025 | 4 |
| 2026 | 2 |
17 CEO appointments on the record in 2023
CEO appointments CryptoLately has verified, by year; 2026 through Oct. 2, 2026
- 2023: 17
- 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2024, 2025, 2026
Moves: The Moves Ledger, CryptoLately's record of verified leadership moves, Oct. 3, 2016 to Oct. 2, 2026.
Read the chart as a table
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| 2019 | 8 |
| 2020 | 7 |
| 2021 | 6 |
| 2022 | 18 |
| 2023 | 17 |
| 2024 | 26 |
| 2025 | 35 |
| 2026 | 18 |
The move
Core Scientific's press release went out through Business Wire from Austin, Texas. It named the change plainly. “Core Scientific, Inc. (OTC: CORZQ)... today announced Adam Sullivan has been appointed Chief Executive Officer. Adam assumes the CEO position after serving as President of Core Scientific.”1 Levitt praised the choice directly. “Adam has been instrumental to Core Scientific in his role as President,” Levitt said. “He has demonstrated the ability to align, empower and energize Core Scientific's outstanding team. Our next phase of growth as a company will only be enhanced by his leadership.”
Sullivan answered with a statement of his own. “I am honored and grateful to Chairman Mike Levitt, the Board of Directors and our outstanding team for their trust in me to serve as Chief Executive Officer of this organization,” Sullivan said. “Core Scientific is extremely well positioned to emerge from the restructuring process as a more efficient, more focused and stronger company with a clear roadmap to expand our capacity cost-effectively as a North American leader in bitcoin mining.”1
Before and after the appointment
Core Scientific had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in December 2022. CoinCodeCap wrote that the promotion came as "the bitcoin mining giant grapples with the aftermath" of that filing "amid a significant drop in bitcoin prices and falling revenue"2. Company figures from the appointment day showed the scale of the operation Sullivan inherited. Core Scientific ran approximately 211,000 bitcoin miners across five states: Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, North Dakota and Texas. Those miners carried a combined potential hash rate of 22.2 exahashes per second1. The miners produced 7,768 bitcoin in the first half of 2023. Core Scientific said that total beat every other listed bitcoin miner in North America.
Sullivan's background sat in finance rather than mining operations. He had spent more than a decade in investment banking focused on digital assets. Most recently he led digital assets and infrastructure deals at XMS Capital Partners. There he oversaw more than $5 billion in deals, including Core Scientific's own 2021 merger with Power & Digital Infrastructure Acquisition Corp.1 CoinCodeCap wrote that his restructuring work as president “has been hailed as instrumental in enhancing the company's efforts to emerge from bankruptcy stronger and more efficiently”2.
What came next
Sullivan stayed CEO past the bankruptcy and into a shift toward AI infrastructure. Core Scientific expanded its board to seven directors on July 29, 2026 with the addition of Mark Adams, a former Penguin Solutions chief executive. Sullivan's own words on July 29 framed the hire that way. “Mark brings an exceptional combination of technology leadership and operational expertise to our Board,” Sullivan said. “His deep experience across AI infrastructure, semiconductors and data storage will be highly relevant as we continue expanding our high-density data center platform.”3
A reversal had come first. Core Scientific's shareholders rejected a roughly $9 billion takeover by the cloud provider CoreWeave on October 30, 2025. Nine months later, on July 28, 2026, the company signed a data-center agreement with AMD instead. AMD's deal could reach 2.5 gigawatts of capacity across sites in Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama and Georgia, with revenue expected to start in 20274. Sullivan's company put the deal's value in its own terms. It claimed a leased footprint near 1.1 gigawatts and contracted revenue past $24 billion, figures it reported itself rather than through an outside audit.
Sources
- Core Scientific, Inc., "Core Scientific, Inc. Appoints Adam Sullivan as CEO to Lead the Company's Next Phase of Growth," Core Scientific, Inc. (Business Wire), Aug. 4, 2023, https://investors.corescientific.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/61/core-scientific-inc-appoints-adam-sullivan-as-ceo-to-lead-the-companys-next-phase-of-growth
- Saniya, "Adam Sullivan becomes Core Scientific CEO as Miner Navigates Restructuring Process," CoinCodeCap, Aug. 5, 2023, https://coincodecap.com/adam-sullivan-becomes-core-scientific-ceo-as-miner-navigates-restructuring-process
- Core Scientific, Inc., "Core Scientific Appoints Mark Adams to Board of Directors," Core Scientific, Inc. (Business Wire), Jul. 29, 2026, https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMizAFBVV95cUxQUTFTVk1QOWtxdUI2ZTlOUzF5dVgtekhRbTRPUGJDcC1QSmtZWUVLQlI5MXNORk5aQTlRN1JwU0t2Nkt0VFY5akFxZ1gzV09FeGhsb0dISFJyVk14a0FEWXp3WUN5eEJUQ3ctUmtud3N4NnAxR0c0ME1sQmVPN0ViSDlqY2FsOU5QTjBJazRaSC1DdFZqWkFOMmNjSnNGaGRjaTdJY2FtOVFKcUx2ejdzMmNrWnFmbmxFNFhRMnNrbE40RjNlUjB0U2VDYVc?oc=5
- The Next Web, "Core Scientific pivots to AMD with 2.5GW AI data-centre pact months after CoreWeave deal collapsed," The Next Web, Jul. 28, 2026, https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMidkFVX3lxTE5TRGkwYVBIVHB0ZTNQQzhTSTZROXd2cXhTSWhTX3NLUVlzYUozR185WmdMWk1RYXFBdi1WQ0hhVEZ0cG5OWEdPMF8ySko0UENhV2VEMV91TWF2alMxazJtNkZCclJnZkUyMkNTU0xRdkdmMTBVa3c?oc=5