** Shares of Core Scientific CORZ.O up 9% at $10.93 in Thurs afternoon trading after co said it expanded power contract with AI hyperscaler CoreWeave

** CORZ shares rose as much as 18.5% to $11.87 earlier in the session

** Co late Weds said new agreement with Nvidia-backed NVDA.O CoreWeave adds $1.2 bln in contracted rev for providing power from its Denton, Texas data center location

** New agreement boosts total projected rev to $10.2 bln over life of the 12-yr contract, it said

** Co said the 70 megawatts of expansion brings full critical IT load to just over 260 megawatts, and boosts CoreWeave's total contracted high-performance computing infrastructure with CORZ to about 590 megawatts across six sites

** CORZ late Weds also reported Q4 rev of $94.9 mln, down 33% from same period last year. Analysts had expected rev of $100.9 mln, LSEG data shows

** Jefferies, which rates CORZ 'buy', raised its PT by $1 to $18, saying the qtr overall was positive

** Though Jefferies said while CORZ expressed optimism about inking leases with more hyperscalers, "these high-stakes negotiations are challenging and take time"

** 15 of 16 brokerages covering CORZ rate stock "strong buy" or "buy", 1 has "hold" and their median PT is $19 - LSEG

** With move on Thurs, shares off ~22% YTD. They closed at $3.44 on Jan 24, 2024 after co emerged from bankruptcy

(Lance Tupper is a Reuters market analyst. The views expressed are his own)

((lance.tupper@tr.com 1-646-279-6380))