CNBC, while it has greatly improved, still generally doesn't fully understand crypto. It does not surprise me that they would take that outlook on it and Core Scientific CEO needs to be more careful when it come to interviews with people like them.
Adam Sullivan is spot on though when it comes to being power shells. These crypto mining companies often locked in long term power contracts at discounted prices so you could switch out the equipment itself and install a bunch of Nvidia chips and run generative AI training at a much cheaper price then what building a data center and signing a purchasing agreement would be right now.