Neocloud provider CoreWeave’s revenue more than doubled in the second quarter, totaling $2.58 billion and topping analysts targets thanks to surging demand for its AI infrastructure services.
“Our near-term capacity remains effectively sold out,” CEO Michael Intrator said on a call with analysts on Tuesday.
Coreweave said its revenue backlog—deals that it has not billed yet— rose 246% year-over-year to $104.2 billion in the second quarter. And the company noted that the figure doesn’t include roughly $25 billion of net new customer commitments added in early Q3.
In response, the stock surged more than 14% in after hours trading on Tuesday, following a volatile year that has seen share prices whipsaw as investors have worked through fears of an AI bubble and the massive amounts of capital expenditures being plowed into AI infrastructure.
Coreweave is among several so-called neocloud providers that build and operate data centers to run AI models, and which compete with established cloud computing giants like Amazon Web Service, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud.
The debate about over investment in AI intensified the day before Coreweave reported earnings, as chipmaker Nvidia (which owns close to 13% of CoreWeave) announced a plan Monday to mobilize $500 billion in financing for AI infrastructure in partnership with Apollo Global Management Inc., Blackstone Inc., BlackRock Inc. and Brookfield Asset Management. Nvidia’s shares were up about 1% after its funding announcement, and up slightly after CoreWeave published its results.
Intrator said on the earnings call that the prices CoreWeave charges for access to Nvidia’s leading edge Blackwell and Vera Rubin chips are “setting new highs” while even older chip inventory is renting at prices last seen years ago. Revenue rose 112% to $2.58 billion this quarter, slightly above the $2.56 billion analysts had estimated, and Coreweave
Despite the strong demand, Coreweave lost $626 million in the second quarter, fueled by a $640 million net interest expense, compared to a net loss of $260 million a year ago. Excluding stock compensation costs and other items, Coreweave said it had $128 million in adjusted operated income in the second quarter.
Concerns about the life span of older inventory, particularly the pricey Nvidia GPUs in Coreweave’s data centers, have been partly why some investors have been less bullish on CoreWeave. The company carries $46.7 billion of property and equipment on its balance sheet, which is mostly made up of GPUs, which some fear could quickly lose their value in favor of newer versions.
Company executives pointed to AI “inference”—in which Coreweave compute runs AI models rather than training them—as a way to extra maximum value from its investments in AI chips and other infrastructure. “The market is very deep,” Intrator said. “We think that we have an embedded advantage because of our control over the silicon, and we think that we’re going to be very successful in that market over time.”
Intrator also tried put the kibosh on concerns that local opposition and moratoriums on data center buildings would slow CoreWeave’s progress. Currently, 18 states have either restricted or are considering significant restrictions on data center building. Intrator said it will impact where data centers are built, but it won’t make a dent in demand. He said companies should work with local communities and offer sweeteners like paying for grid upgrades so costs don’t hit local residents and to ensure long-term job growth. CoreWeave has targeted eight gigawatts of power by 2030.
“None of those numbers will be impacted by the regulatory pushback; as of today we are comfortable with it,” Intrator said.
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