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CoreWeave (CRWV)

Buy CRWV. The OpenAI Astra model adds a fresh demand catalyst on top of a massive contracted base: ~$104B backlog and $22.4B OpenAI deal, plus raised 2026 revenue guidance ($12.4B–$13.2B). The key is the shift to long-dated, take-or-pay contracts and only ~36% of contracted power active—so revenue can expand as capacity gets energized, not just by chasing spot GPU demand. Expect valuation re-rating as visibility improves and margins benefit from better pricing/contract structure.

Key Risk: They fail to convert contracted power into active, revenue-generating infrastructure fast enough (execution/capex delays), so backlog doesn’t turn into results and leverage/margin pressure hits the stock.

NVIDIA (NVDA)

Buy NVDA. CRWV’s surge signals sustained hyperscaler/AI infrastructure buildout and tighter supply dynamics for accelerators and networking. If contracted demand keeps expanding and more capacity gets activated, NVDA’s data-center revenue mix benefits directly from higher AI compute deployments across customers like OpenAI and the broader ecosystem.

Key Risk: AI infrastructure demand slows or customers renegotiate down (or delay) GPU orders, causing NVDA growth to decelerate despite CRWV’s near-term catalyst.

CoreWeave CRWV stock jumped 16% on Tuesday as OpenAI’s new Astra model provided a fresh catalyst for the AI cloud infrastructure company.

CoreWeave has a $22.4 billion deal with OpenAI to provide computing power, adding to a growing base of contracted demand for its infrastructure.

The company’s momentum also follows strong second-quarter 2026 results reported last month.

CoreWeave posted revenue of $2.58 billion, up 112% year over year and above Wall Street expectations.

Its revenue backlog stood at approximately $104 billion, while more than $25 billion in new customer commitments were added during the early weeks of the third quarter.

Management also raised its full-year 2026 revenue guidance to between $12.4 billion and $13.2 billion, highlighting the scale of demand for AI computing infrastructure.

The company expects its ARR to reach approximately $250 million by year-end, while forecasting 2027 ARR of $18.5 billion to $19.5 billion.

CoreWeave’s business is increasingly centered on long-dated, take-or-pay style contracts rather than speculative GPU capacity sales.

These agreements provide customers with contracted access to NVIDIA accelerators and related networking, storage, and orchestration software.

According to a Seeking Alpha report, the shift has changed the company’s risk profile by providing greater revenue visibility and contract durability.

Seeking Alpha described CoreWeave as no longer primarily selling speculative capacity into an uncertain market, but instead delivering against a contracted order book that is more than 10 times its current annual revenue.

The analysis rated CoreWeave a buy with 15%-20% upside, while also identifying the company as the highest-risk name in the analyst’s model. It cited leverage and execution risks alongside the potential for margin expansion and a valuation re-rating.

Another factor highlighted in the analysis is CoreWeave’s unused contracted power capacity.

Only 36% of its contracted power is currently active, potentially leaving significant room for future revenue as additional capacity is energized.

Analysts remain constructive on CRWVAnalyst sentiment has remained positive following CoreWeave’s second-quarter results.

Truist Securities raised its price target on CRWV to $165 from $155 in late August, citing potential margin upside from improved pricing and contract structures.

Oppenheimer maintained its Outperform rating with a $150 price target. The firm argued that supply concerns were overblown compared with demand, which was described as running at roughly four times available capacity.

Billionaire investor David Tepper is also increasing exposure to AI-related companies. Appaloosa Management’s portfolio includes Amazon, Micron Technology, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing and Alphabet, with those four companies accounting for roughly half of the portfolio.

During the second quarter, Appaloosa added both Space Exploration Technologies and CoreWeave to its portfolio.

CoreWeave’s transition toward contracted AI infrastructure demand provides greater visibility, but the company remains exposed to leverage and execution risks. The balance between expanding capacity, converting contracted power into active infrastructure and improving margins will remain important to its outlook.

SummaryCoreWeave, Inc. retains my Strong Buy rating, as Q2 revealed a step-change in adjusted operating margin from 1% to 5%.CRWV’s forward guidance implies a massive Q4 ramp, with up to 60% of full-year adjusted operating income expected in that quarter.Weighted-average cost of debt fell by 300 basis points despite a hawkish Fed, signaling improved lender confidence and robust capital access.Bear risks center on surging interest expense and leverage, but margin ramp and contract durability—such as 2029 A100 GPU deals—support the bullish thesis. Erik Isakson/DigitalVision via Getty Images

Back in July, I covered CoreWeave, Inc. (CRWV) and argued that the selloff was a rate scare without an underlying business problem, and that the crowd would find its way back to the

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Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have no stock, option or similar derivative position in any of the companies mentioned, and no plans to initiate any such positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Seeking Alpha's Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.

Shares of artificial intelligence (AI) cloud infrastructure provider CoreWeave (CRWV -3.58%) trade around $82 as of this writing, down about 47% from their 52-week high. But the business keeps growing at an extraordinary pace. Second-quarter revenue rose 112% year over year to about $2.6 billion, and the company's revenue backlog reached about $104 billion (a figure that excludes more than $25 billion of new commitments added early in the third quarter).

The cost of financing that growth is climbing even faster. CoreWeave's interest expense was $640 million in the second quarter -- 2.4 times the $267 million it recorded a year earlier.

And the bond market isn't helping. The 30-year Treasury yield has closed above 5% on 55 days since the start of January, the most closes above that mark in any year since 2006.

To be fair, CoreWeave doesn't borrow at 30-year maturities, and its debt doesn't price anywhere near Treasury yields. But in a bond market like that, I think borrowed money could stay expensive for a while. And CoreWeave needs a lot more of it.

Image source: The Motley Fool.

More debt, cheaper debtCoreWeave's interest expense has climbed every quarter for the past year, from $267 million in the second quarter of 2025 to $311 million, $388 million, $536 million, and now $640 million. The driver is the balance, not the rate. Total debt reached about $35 billion as of June 30, up from about $21 billion at the end of 2025. That is a lot of debt for a company that completed its initial public offering (IPO) less than 18 months ago.

The rate, in fact, has moved in CoreWeave's favor.

"Over the past year, we have reduced our weighted average cost of debt by almost 300 basis points, representing approximately $1.1 billion of annualized interest saving based on our end of Q2 debt load," chief financial officer Nitin Agrawal said in the company's second-quarter earnings call.

Those savings are real. Low-rate convertible notes and bigger credit facilities have replaced some of the expensive borrowing from earlier in its cloud build-out. The bill more than doubled anyway, because the balance grew far faster than the rate fell.

How expensive is all that debt?CoreWeave's latest quarterly filing lists effective interest rates for its borrowings, and the range is wide: 2% on its convertible notes, mostly 9% to 11% on its term loans and senior notes, and 15% on its oldest term loan.

Weight each rate by its balance, and the blended cost works out to about 8.4%. On a balance this size, each percentage point costs more than $350 million a year.

New money is still arriving above that average. CoreWeave issued senior notes at 9.75% in April and 9.625% in June, plus euro-denominated notes at 8.5% -- effective rates of 9% to 10% once fees and discounts are folded in.

And the $2.6 billion term loan facility it added in August prices at 5.5 percentage points over the benchmark short-term lending rate.

The broader bond market offers little sign of relief coming. The 30-year yield touched 5.34% in mid-August, its highest since 2007, and sits at about 5.27% as of this writing.

The bill keeps climbingManagement expects third-quarter interest expense of $860 million to $940 million, a step up of about 41% at the midpoint, against $200 million to $260 million of adjusted operating income.

Operating profit was already far behind. Adjusted operating income was $128 million in the second quarter, down from $200 million a year earlier even as revenue more than doubled.

But the maturity schedule, at least, looks manageable. About $4.4 billion of principal comes due through year-end and $6.2 billion in 2027, while nearly $15 billion isn't due until after 2030. Refinancing isn't the near-term problem, in my opinion. New borrowing is.

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That's because the spending isn't slowing down. CoreWeave spent $16.1 billion on capital expenditures in the first half, and its full-year guidance of $35 billion to $39 billion implies roughly $19 billion to $23 billion more in the second half.

Against that, CoreWeave held about $5.5 billion of cash at the end of June -- arguably not much next to spending plans that size.

Ultimately, the second quarter showed a company getting better at borrowing while needing more of it than ever. Sure, the spending builds the AI infrastructure behind the $104 billion of contracted revenue already on the books. But the interest bill is climbing faster than the operating profit that is supposed to carry it.

That gap is the number I'd watch. Interest expense ran about $500 million ahead of adjusted operating income in the second quarter, and guidance implies the distance widens in the third.

CoreWeave has shed nearly $70 from its May peak and now carries a $104 billion revenue backlog against a debt load that makes bears nervous. Whether the $85 price level is a gift or a trap depends on three catalysts…

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At roughly $84.89, CoreWeave (NASDAQ:CRWV) screens attractively for investors willing to underwrite the capital intensity behind the AI infrastructure buildout. The stock has round-tripped from a $136.80 May peak, resetting valuations.

CoreWeave runs a purpose-built, GPU-native cloud designed specifically for high-density AI training and inference. Legacy hyperscalers such as AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud carry decades of general-purpose enterprise workloads, while CoreWeave’s data centers were engineered from the ground up for foundational model labs and enterprise AI. That specialization shows up in lower latency and better price-to-performance for the customers that matter most in this cycle.

The company delivered $2.58 billion in Q2 revenue, up 112.32% year over year, and ended the quarter with a $104 billion revenue backlog. Yet shares sit near the middle of a 52-week range of $60.55 to $153.20.

Why the Neocloud Thesis Gets Sharper Below $90 Growth this fast is rare, and the price-to-performance gap versus hyperscalers is measurable. Signal 65 estimated CoreWeave delivers total cost of ownership up to 47% lower than the average hyperscaler, and Gartner named the company a visionary in its 2026 Magic Quadrant for Cloud AI Infrastructure.

Pricing power is evident. Management cited an approximately 25% price increase across SKUs in July, with Blackwell and Vera Rubin SKUs setting new highs. Adjusted EBITDA hit $1.51 billion at a 59% margin, and operating cash flow flipped to a positive $679 million. Add Nasdaq-100 inclusion and an $144.46 average analyst target, and the risk-reward skews favorably.

Why Bears See a Debt Time Bomb The bear case rests on capital intensity. Q2 free cash flow was negative $5.74 billion, and full-year 2026 capex guidance was raised to $35 to $39 billion. Interest expense reached $640 million in the quarter and is guided to $860 to $940 million in Q3.

Total liabilities of $72.05 billion tower over $5.02 billion in equity. Analysts have trimmed forward EPS estimates, with seven downward revisions against one upward for fiscal 2026 over the trailing 30 days. Any hiccup in capital markets access, GPU supply, or customer concentration could bite hard.

Why Patience Still Has a Case Revenue growth is real, but GAAP losses widened to $626 million and adjusted operating margin compressed to 5% from 16% from a year earlier. Investors waiting for the margin ramp toward the guided low teens in Q4 can watch backlog conversion and power additions before committing.

Data That Frames the Verdict CoreWeave trades at $84.89, with a consensus target of $144.46 that implies roughly 70% upside if the Street proves right. Coverage spans 37 analysts, with 5 Strong Buy, 21 Buy, 9 Hold, 1 Sell, and 1 Strong Sell ratings.

Year to date the stock is up 18.54% versus 12.48% for the S&P 500, though over the trailing year CRWV is down 17.61% while the index gained 18.91%. Shares carry a 6.12 price-to-sales and 12.38 EV/Sales, rich in absolute terms but reasonable against triple-digit growth.

Why the $85 Level Matters At $85, the setup for CoreWeave looks constructive. The path to appreciation runs through three catalysts. First, the $104 billion backlog plus more than $25 billion in new Q3 commitments gives multi-year revenue visibility that few growth stocks can match. Second, operating margins are guided to expand into the low teens by Q4, which reframes the leverage story. Third, active power scaling from 1.5 gigawatts today toward more than 1.85 gigawatts by year end converts contracted demand into billable revenue.

Buying near $84.89, well off the $153.20 high, builds in a cushion against the debt and capex concerns. The thesis breaks if credit markets tighten, if a top customer renegotiates, or if power buildouts slip materially.

For investors who believe the AI infrastructure cycle runs through 2030, CoreWeave at $85 represents one of the purest and most levered public-market exposures to that theme. The power, cooling, and networking suppliers feeding the same buildout are worth knowing too, and we profiled seven of them in a free report on the AI boom beyond the chipmakers.

Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.

RUM Group CEO Chris Pavlovski just publicly named CoreWeave and Nebius as targets for his company's AI infrastructure arm, but the SEC filing sitting behind that bold claim reveals a financing gap that could stop the Maysville data center before…

RUM Group (NASDAQ:RUM) stock is up 11% to $10.44 Tuesday midday after CEO Chris Pavlovski publicly named CoreWeave (NASDAQ:CRWV) and Nebius Group (NASDAQ:NBIS | NBIS Price Prediction) as targets for the company’s AI infrastructure push. RUM Group stock was up 48% year to date (YTD) through Monday’s close, extending a run that has reshaped the story around the former Rumble.

In contrast, Trump Media & Technology Group (NASDAQ:DJT) stock is down 0.7% to $9.23. Trump Media stock was down 30% YTD through Monday’s close, a reminder that retail still associates the two tickers despite very different businesses.

The sector backdrop is friendlier today than it was on Monday. Global X Data Center & Digital Infrastructure ETF (NASDAQ:DTCR) is up 2% to $28.53, joining today’s rally after fading in the prior session. Meanwhile, Global X Social Media ETF (NASDAQ:SOCL) is up 0.8% to $45.26, a milder tailwind for the platform side of the RUM Group story.

Quake AI Puts Neocloud Rivals on Notice Pavlovski used a post on X to sharpen his pitch, writing that “our Quake AI division is a real player, and we will fiercely compete with the likes of CoreWeave, Nebius and all neoclouds.” Quake AI is RUM Group’s AI infrastructure arm, seeded by the recently closed Northern Data deal and positioned alongside the media assets that most retail investors know as Rumble.

RUM Group began operating under that name after closing its all-stock acquisition of German AI cloud company Northern Data in June. The deal was agreed in November 2025 and valued at roughly $767 million, adding about 22,400 NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) GPUs including H100s and H200s. That installed base is the credibility foundation under Pavlovski’s challenge to larger neocloud names.

Financing Gap Behind the Ambition Monday’s catalyst was RUM Group’s six-year GPU services contract. The agreement is worth approximately $13.7 billion with an unidentified U.S.-based cloud provider, covering capacity from the Maysville, Georgia data center, which remains under development. Payment comes in three phases, and the third tranche is conditional on the customer approving the proposed delivery schedule.

Today’s wrinkle comes from RUM Group’s own filing language. The company stated in SEC filings that it currently lacks the financing required to fulfil the contract and plans to raise capital through debt or equity, while warning that its obligations to the customer aren’t dependent on securing that financing. That framing widens the visible gap between the CEO’s public ambition and the balance sheet behind Quake AI.

RUM Group lays the risk out plainly in an SEC filing:

If we are unable to obtain sufficient financing on acceptable terms, we may be unable to complete the facility, acquire the necessary GPUs and related equipment, meet applicable delivery milestones or otherwise timely perform our obligations under the Commercial Agreement.

The company also cited construction and permitting delays, higher costs, material shortages, labor constraints, power supply concerns, and regulatory uncertainty as risks.

Warrant Terms and Sector Read The customer’s incentive is baked into a warrant with meaningful dilution optionality for RUM Group holders. The warrant grants the customer up to 50.81 million Class A shares at $0.01 per share and carries a 10-year term. Half vests alongside the three GPU service tranches, and the remainder vests in five 10% increments as additional purchase agreements are signed, with full vesting once cumulative purchases exceed 2.5 times the initial contract value. Any unvested portion expires if the agreements lapse or are breached.

The data center complex is joining RUM Group today, a shift from Monday when DTCR was lower while RUM Group rallied alone. That signals whether this is a single-name story or a genuine sector bid, and the picks-and-shovels names powering the buildout are the ones we profiled in a free AI infrastructure report you can grab here. CoreWeave and Nebius Group remain the reference points investors will price Quake AI against, and both sit at valuations well above RUM Group’s current level.

Investors can watch for whether RUM Group stock holds the double-digit handle into the close, and whether the company follows Pavlovski’s post with a formal Quake AI investor presentation. The financing plan is the next material event, given that RUM Group’s contract obligations don’t wait for capital to arrive. Debt terms, equity dilution, and any Tether-related backstop are the levers that will define execution risk.

For their positions, investors should keep their exposure to RUM Group modest until the company details how debt or equity will fund the Maysville build. The gap between ambition and cash is wide, and dilution risk sits inside the warrant terms as well as any future raise. Trump Media stock remains sentiment-driven at the moment, and the DTCR ETF is a clean way to hold data center exposure without single-name execution risk.

Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.

Key Takeaways CoreWeave is benefiting from a $104B backlog and rapidly expanding AI infrastructure demand.CoreWeave raised its 2026 revenue outlook as adjusted EBITDA doubled to $1.5B with a 59% margin.Applied Digital faces high debt, customer concentration and execution risks across five major campuses. The AI boom is rapidly transforming the data center industry, creating major opportunities for companies that can provide the computing power, facilities and electricity needed to support AI workloads. Two companies attracting significant investor attention are CoreWeave, Inc. (CRWV - Free Report) and Applied Digital (APLD - Free Report) . There is also an interesting strategic relationship between the two companies. CoreWeave itself is one of Applied Digital's major customers. APLD's infrastructure therefore allows investors to gain exposure to the same AI buildout from a different angle.

Per a report from Fortune Business Insights, the global AI data center market is projected to grow from $21.27 billion in 2026 to $133.51 billion by 2034, representing a CAGR of 25.8%. Although both are benefiting from the same secular trend, their business models are quite different. CoreWeave operates a specialized AI cloud platform, while Applied Digital focuses more heavily on developing and leasing large-scale data center infrastructure. This distinction matters when evaluating their growth potential, risk and valuation.

Let’s take a closer look.

The Case for APLD StockApplied Digital has been steadily evolving from a broader digital-infrastructure company into a more focused data center platform serving HPC, AI and accelerated-compute workloads. The company completed the separation of its cloud services business during fiscal 2026, with Applied Digital retaining approximately 96% of ChronoScale. Applied Digital also continues to have exposure to CoreWeave through its existing leases. It strengthened its CoreWeave leases through a restructured SPV, unconditional guarantees and a $50 million letter of credit.

However, the biggest challenge is the enormous amount of capital required to turn contracted projects into operating assets. Applied Digital had $4.2 billion in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash against $5 billion of debt as of May 31, 2026. The company recently completed a $2.15 billion senior secured notes offering to fund development at Polaris Forge 2 and later closed another $1.59 billion senior secured notes offering to fund the fourth building at Polaris Forge 1. It also expanded its revolving credit facility to support development.

Debt financing can accelerate growth, but it also increases interest obligations and execution risk. If construction costs rise, projects are delayed, or customer requirements change, the financial burden could grow. GAAP profitability is another concern. Applied Digital reported a fiscal fourth-quarter net loss attributable to common stockholders of $110.6 million and a loss of $249.2 million in fiscal 2026. Consequently, investors should not view adjusted EBITDA growth alone as proof that the company has already reached sustainable profitability.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

Customer concentration remains another key risk for Applied Digital, with CoreWeave as the sole tenant across the fully leased 400 MW Polaris Forge 1 and a single crypto customer in its legacy hosting business. Execution risk is also elevated as the company develops five multibillion-dollar campuses simultaneously, making timely construction, power delivery and lease execution critical to converting capacity into stable rental income.

The Case for CRWV StockCoreWeave has emerged as a prominent AI-focused cloud infrastructure provider. Its platform is designed specifically for accelerated computing and AI workloads, giving customers access to large amounts of GPU computing capacity without having to build their own infrastructure. The company's latest results highlight the scale of demand. CoreWeave reported $2.6 billion in second-quarter revenue, while its revenue backlog reached approximately $104 billion as of June 30. It also disclosed more than $25 billion of additional customer commitments added early in the third quarter.

This hefty backlog provides substantial visibility into future revenue and demonstrates that major AI customers are willing to commit to long-term computing capacity. CoreWeave is also expanding beyond its existing customer base. Its relationships include AI labs, hyperscalers and enterprises, while recent customer wins and expansions include companies such as Caterpillar, Bentley Systems, Databricks, Hudson River Trading and Runway ML. Active power reached 1.5 GW, while contracted power rose to 3.7 GW by quarter-end and 4.2 GW afterward, keeping it on track for more than 8 GW of active power by 2030. CRWV also expects more than 1.85 GW of active power by year-end.

CoreWeave is also expanding beyond traditional GPU cloud infrastructure into higher-margin AI services. Its managed inference business grew from $1 million to more than $100 million in booked ARR within a few months, with management targeting at least $250 million by year-end. Storage, CPU, networking and software businesses already generated more than $400 million in ARR, while seven new AI platform capabilities and continued development of its AI-native platform are helping customers move from experimentation to production.

Profitability is beginning to benefit from increasing scale and pricing power. Adjusted EBITDA doubled year over year to $1.5 billion, with a 59% margin, while adjusted operating income increased to $128 million. Recent contracts are carrying contribution margins 5–10 percentage points higher than those signed in recent quarters, supported by strong demand, higher pricing and the value customers place on CRWV's performance and reliability. Management raised its 2026 outlook, now expecting revenue of $12.4–$13.2 billion, adjusted operating income of $960 million–$1.15 billion and year-end annualized revenue of $18.5–$19.5 billion.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

The opportunity, however, comes with a major caveat. CoreWeave is extremely capital-intensive. The company raised its 2026 capital expenditure forecast to $35 billion-$39 billion from $31 billion-$35 billion previously. The pressure is evident in its $567 million adjusted net loss, while interest expense more than doubled to $640 million as debt increased to fund expansion. With more than $32 billion of capital secured, leverage remains a concern, and interest expense is expected to rise to $860 million–$940 million. Supply-chain challenges, intensifying competition and reliance on large customers also pose risks if deployments are delayed or lost.

CRWV & APLD’s Share Performance TrajectoryIn the past month, CRWV has surged 24.4% while APLD is up 9.4%.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

Valuation ConsiderationsCRWV trades at a forward 12-month price-to-sales (P/S) ratio of 1.93, below APLD’s 8.01.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

How Do Zacks Estimates Compare for CRWV & APLD?The Zacks Consensus Estimate for CRWV’s earnings for the current year has been revised downward over the past 60 days.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for APLD’s earnings for the current fiscal year has also been revised downward over the past 60 days.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

CRWV or APLD: Which Stock Has More Upside?CRWV at present carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) while APLD has a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

For aggressive investors seeking the bigger long-term growth opportunity, CoreWeave appears to have the stronger case. Its enormous backlog, rapidly expanding revenue base and direct exposure to AI compute demand give it a powerful growth engine. Second-quarter results suggest that demand remains exceptionally strong, while management is expanding capacity aggressively to capture that opportunity. However, concerns include enormous capital requirements, leverage, customer concentration and the possibility that AI infrastructure supply eventually grows faster than demand. CRWV appears to be treading in the middle of the road, and new investors could be better off if they trade with caution.

Applied Digital faces different risks. Large data center projects can experience construction and power-delivery delays, while reliance on a relatively small number of large customers can create concentration risk. Management has also warned that labor and construction constraints could cause significant delays across the AI infrastructure industry during 2026 and 2027. Hence, investors should avoid this stock for now.

One of the hottest debates on Wall Street concerns the future of artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure spending and its potential impact on industry leaders, such as Nvidia (NVDA -2.50%). Some investors believe that the AI tailwind won't last much longer, and as it slows, Nvidia's shares will plunge. Others think the semiconductor specialist is still looking at a large growth runway. Who is right?

Earnings season has given us more evidence for the bull thesis. Consider, for instance, CoreWeave's (CRWV -3.35%) second-quarter results, released on Aug. 11. The AI-focused cloud computing company's update gave us more reasons to believe Nvidia's run is far from over. Here's what investors need to know.

Image source: The Motley Fool.

CoreWeave is firing on all cylinders CoreWeave operates data centers tailored for AI workloads. Since Nvidia's GPUs (Graphics Processing Units) are still arguably the most effective hardware for training and running AI applications, CoreWeave buys racks of them. As demand for the company's services increases, CoreWeave will need to expand its capacity and purchase additional GPUs. That seems to be what will continue happening for the foreseeable future, as evidenced by CoreWeave's second-quarter results.

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The company's revenue was $2.6 billion, up 112.5% year over year. CoreWeave's revenue backlog as of the end of the period was $104 billion, up 245.5% from the year-ago quarter. CoreWeave's operating and net losses widened compared to the prior-year quarter, but this reflects the company's continued investment in the business, which seems more than justified considering its revenue and backlog growth. Management pointed out that CoreWeave's capacity is sold out in the near-term, while demand continues to intensify.

What it means for Nvidia's future CoreWeave's excellent second-quarter results signaled that AI infrastructure spending hasn't peaked yet and were unquestionably a bullish sign for Nvidia. Does that mean investors should buy Nvidia's stock ahead of its upcoming earnings update? On Aug. 26, Nvidia will release its financial results for the second quarter of its fiscal year 2027, which ended on July 26.

However, the company is unlikely to impress the market, even if it beats on revenue and earnings, which it has done more often than not in recent years. Wall Street has ceased to be impressed by that. That said, Nvidia's shares may still be a buy ahead of Aug. 26 for investors focused on the long game.

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The company's lead in the GPU market remains impregnable, partly thanks to its CUDA ecosystem, which provides a wide moat from switching costs. Nvidia is also tapping into new opportunities. It estimates a $200 billion addressable market in the CPU (Central Processing Unit) industry, driven by the rise of agentic AI systems that run on CPUs. Nvidia is well-positioned to capture a corner of that space as well.

Lastly, the stock remains fairly valued. Nvidia is trading at 24.8x forward earnings, versus an average of 21.1x for information technology stocks. At the rate at which Nvidia's earnings continue to grow -- and given sustained demand for its products -- that seems more than fair. For all those reasons, the stock is still a buy.

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CRWV long

Buy CoreWeave (CRWV). The thesis is pricing power: Truist expects CoreWeave to pass higher GPU costs through to customers, lifting contribution margins on longer-duration contracts from ~24% to ~33% in 2H 2026. With the market focused on bond-yield pressure, the stock’s pullback looks like a timing issue, not a demand issue—AI infrastructure demand is still supply-constrained and existing contracts face limited risk.

Key Risk: GPU price hikes and customer pushback hit renewal pricing, so margins don’t expand as costs rise.

Neocloud capital discipline short

Sell the neocloud “capital destruction” basket: short a high-capex neocloud peer versus CRWV (e.g., short a laggard like DigitalBridge/other neocloud-exposed names if available to you, or use an equal-weight short of neocloud peers). The second analyst warning is that heavy capital spending funded by debt can turn a growth story into low returns on invested capital. If rates stay high, financing costs amplify this risk and compress multiples across the group, while CRWV’s pricing power should be relatively better.

Key Risk: Peers prove they can fund growth cheaply and still earn strong returns, so the “capital destruction” narrative fails.

CoreWeave CRWV shares fell nearly 3% in premarket trading Monday as technology stocks came under pressure from rising global bond yields.

The 30-year US Treasury yield topped 5.3% last week, reaching levels not seen in nearly 20 years, while yields in Japan, France and Germany also climbed to multi-year highs.

Despite the broader pressure on technology stocks, Truist Securities remains bullish on CoreWeave, arguing that the company's pricing power can offset higher graphics processing unit (GPU) costs.

Truist Securities maintained a Buy rating on CoreWeave and raised its price target to $165 from $155. The new target implies nearly 88% upside from Friday's closing price.

Analyst Arvind Ramnani said CoreWeave's pricing power should more than offset rising GPU costs.

He expects higher prices charged by the company to largely flow through to margins in the second half of 2026, while Nvidia's higher costs are expected to affect systems shipped early next year.

Ramnani also estimated that contribution margins on future longer-duration contracts could rise from about 24% to 33%. Shorter-duration contracts and the re-contracting of previous-generation GPUs could provide additional upside, he said.

CoreWeave rents computing capacity using GPUs from Nvidia and other chipmakers.

Rising demand for memory and storage solutions linked to the artificial intelligence boom has pushed GPU prices higher.

Nvidia has reportedly raised prices for its latest GPUs by more than 15%, creating a potential margin challenge for CoreWeave. However, the company increased prices across its inventory by 25% in July, according to Ramnani, helping offset higher equipment costs.

Truist expects limited risk to CoreWeave's existing contracts and continues to view the market as supply-constrained.

The bank's bullish outlook is broadly consistent with Wall Street sentiment. LSEG data shows that 27 of the 40 analysts covering CoreWeave have a Buy or Strong Buy rating.

CoreWeave shares have gained 23% in 2026, although the stock has experienced significant volatility. Shares rose 39% during the first half of the year before falling 28% in July.

The company operates in the growing neocloud industry, which provides computing capacity to customers benefiting from the continued build-out of artificial intelligence infrastructure.

Neocloud providers have benefited from substantial spending by large technology companies and hyperscalers.

However, the industry's rapid expansion has also raised concerns about whether the companies can generate adequate returns on their investments.

Noah Weisberger, chief strategist at BCA Research, has taken a more cautious view of the neocloud industry.

He argues that companies in the sector could "destroy capital" by using borrowed money to expand what could eventually become a low-margin commodity service.

In a recent research report, Weisberger and colleague Dishaan Pandey analyzed six neocloud companies and found that their heavy capital spending could result in significantly lower returns on invested capital than hyperscalers achieve from their own infrastructure investments.

Weisberger said neocloud companies benefit from spending elsewhere in the technology supply chain, but they also have to invest heavily to generate that revenue.

AI Squared Management Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of CoreWeave Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWV – Free Report) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 69,661 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,934,000. CoreWeave makes up 3.7% of AI Squared Management Ltd’s holdings, making the stock its 12th biggest position.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Parallel Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of CoreWeave by 4.0% in the 1st quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 2,340 shares of the company’s stock worth $181,000 after acquiring an additional 91 shares in the last quarter. Pathway Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of CoreWeave by 2.9% during the 1st quarter. Pathway Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,593 shares of the company’s stock worth $278,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Azzad Asset Management Inc. ADV boosted its position in CoreWeave by 2.1% during the first quarter. Azzad Asset Management Inc. ADV now owns 5,020 shares of the company’s stock valued at $389,000 after purchasing an additional 104 shares in the last quarter. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of CoreWeave by 34.7% in the 4th quarter. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. now owns 462 shares of the company’s stock valued at $33,000 after buying an additional 119 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. lifted its position in CoreWeave by 45.8% during the fourth quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 385 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 121 shares during the last quarter.

Insider Activity In related news, major shareholder Magnetar Financial Llc sold 307,131 shares of CoreWeave stock in a transaction on Friday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $108.75, for a total transaction of $33,400,496.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 220,810 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $24,013,087.50. The trade was a 58.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Michael N. Intrator sold 278,560 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $97.43, for a total transaction of $27,140,100.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 3,138,612 shares in the company, valued at $305,794,967.16. This trade represents a 8.15% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders sold 9,541,014 shares of company stock worth $942,884,194 in the last 90 days. 24.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes A number of research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price target on shares of CoreWeave from $67.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of CoreWeave from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “buy” rating and set a $250.00 price target on shares of CoreWeave in a research report on Wednesday, August 12th. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on shares of CoreWeave from $140.00 to $150.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane began coverage on shares of CoreWeave in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. They set an “outperform” rating and a $192.00 price target on the stock. Twenty-one analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $141.57. Read Our Latest Stock Report on CRWV

Key Headlines Impacting CoreWeave Here are the key news stories impacting CoreWeave this week:

Positive Sentiment: CoreWeave announced a multiyear agreement with Hudson River Trading (HRT) to provide AI infrastructure for trading research and model development. The deal reportedly could be worth billions and will use NVIDIA’s next-generation Vera Rubin NVL72 platform and Spectrum-X networking, expanding CoreWeave’s exposure to financial-services customers and supporting demand visibility. Hudson River Trading agreement Positive Sentiment: Analysts continue to point to CoreWeave’s powerful growth: recent quarterly revenue rose 112.5% year over year to $2.58 billion, while its backlog reached more than $104 billion. A bullish research view cited improving margins, operating leverage and strong AI demand, although it acknowledged capital-intensity risks. CoreWeave growth and valuation analysis Neutral Sentiment: Short seller Martin Shkreli reportedly covered his CoreWeave position after holding it for roughly a week. The move removes one source of short-selling pressure but is not necessarily a bullish signal, particularly as the stock continued to face broader volatility. Martin Shkreli covers CoreWeave short Negative Sentiment: CEO Michael Intrator sold 307,692 shares for approximately $29.5 million at an average price of $95.72. The sales were made under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan, and he still owns a significant stake, but the size of the transaction weighed on sentiment and raised concerns about insider selling. CoreWeave CEO share sale Negative Sentiment: Bearish commentary argues that CoreWeave’s highly leveraged business model could struggle if AI infrastructure spending slows, capacity becomes excessive or interest rates remain elevated. With a debt-to-equity ratio above 5 and negative earnings, investors remain sensitive to funding costs, dilution risk and the company’s path to profitability. CoreWeave leverage and market risks Negative Sentiment: Northland Securities’ estimates show continued losses through 2027, including projected fiscal 2026 EPS of negative $5.50 and fiscal 2027 EPS of negative $3.18, although the firm expects a return to quarterly profitability in the fourth quarter of 2027. CoreWeave analyst estimates CoreWeave Stock Down 2.1% Shares of NASDAQ:CRWV opened at $87.85 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $89.99 and a 200-day simple moving average of $94.74. The company has a market capitalization of $40.31 billion, a PE ratio of -24.07 and a beta of 7.44. The company has a current ratio of 0.46, a quick ratio of 0.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.53. CoreWeave Inc. has a twelve month low of $60.55 and a twelve month high of $153.20.

CoreWeave (NASDAQ:CRWV – Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, August 11th. The company reported ($1.14) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.52) by $0.38. CoreWeave had a negative net margin of 25.41% and a negative return on equity of 47.95%. The business had revenue of $2.58 billion during the quarter. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted ($0.27) earnings per share. CoreWeave’s quarterly revenue was up 112.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts predict that CoreWeave Inc. will post -5.17 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CoreWeave Company Profile (Free Report)

CoreWeave is a U.S.-based provider of GPU-accelerated cloud infrastructure designed to support compute-intensive workloads such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, visual effects rendering and other high-performance computing applications. The company supplies access to large fleets of modern GPUs and complementary infrastructure that enable customers to train and deploy large models, run inference at scale, and process graphics-heavy workloads with low latency and high throughput.

CoreWeave’s product offering includes on-demand and dedicated GPU instances, bare-metal servers, private clusters and managed services tailored for enterprise and developer use.

Further Reading Five stocks we like better than CoreWeave Blueprint for a Boom: SEC Clears the Crypto Runway Ross Stores Just Flipped the Off-Price Retail Story After TJX’s Marmaxx Miss Advance Auto Parts Plunged, But Its Turnaround Is Still Working Is Palo Alto Networks Priced for Perfection Again as AI Security Demand Accelerates?

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Key Takeaways CoreWeave won a multi-year HRT deal to build an AI-driven research and model-development platform.HRT will use NVIDIA's Vera Rubin NVL72 and Spectrum-X Ethernet networking through CoreWeave.CoreWeave's growing financial-services reach supports enterprise AI demand and improved revenue visibility. CoreWeave Inc. (CRWV - Free Report) recently won a multi-year agreement with Hudson River Trading (HRT), a top-tier quantitative trading firm, to build its next-generation AI-driven research and model-development platform. The deployment will use NVIDIA's (NVDA - Free Report) Vera Rubin infrastructure, including the Vera Rubin NVL72 platform and Spectrum-X Ethernet networking. HRT’s decision to use CoreWeave's AI cloud platform suggests that specialized AI infrastructure can become an important component of next-generation quantitative research.

A notable aspect of the agreement is HRT’s planned use of NVIDIA Vera Rubin infrastructure. NVIDIA designed the Rubin platform for the next generation of large-scale AI workloads, particularly reasoning, inference and agentic AI. The Vera Rubin NVL72 combines 72 Rubin GPUs with 36 Vera CPUs and uses NVIDIA's latest high-bandwidth interconnect technologies. CoreWeave has already established an early-mover position with the platform. In June, the company announced that it had completed the industry's first bring-up and validation of Vera Rubin NVL72. CRWV simplifies access to NVDA’s latest architectures by handling the infrastructure complexity, allowing it to monetize each new generation of NVIDIA hardware.

The HRT agreement also broadens CoreWeave's exposure to financial services. Quantitative trading firms such as Jane Street, IMC and Flow Traders have already adopted CoreWeave's infrastructure, underscoring the potential for a broader financial-services customer base. Despite these positive implications, the agreement does not eliminate CoreWeave’s challenges. Competition remains a concern. Hyperscalers such as Microsoft Azure (MSFT - Free Report) and other specialized providers like Nebius Group N.V. (NBIS - Free Report) are also investing heavily in advanced AI infrastructure. Nonetheless, HRT’s multi-year deal highlights CoreWeave’s growing enterprise AI demand, specialized infrastructure advantage and improved revenue visibility.

Can CRWV Maintain Its Edge Amid Fierce Rivalry?Like CRWV, NBIS continues to deepen ties with NVDA. In June, it announced plans to invest approximately £1.7 billion in expanding AI compute capacity across the U.K. The investment includes three new deployments of advanced NVIDIA-powered infrastructure. Nebius launched its first U.K. deployment of NVIDIA Blackwell Ultra infrastructure in late 2025. Building on that foundation, it now plans to establish three additional sites across the U.K., deploying the latest generations of NVIDIA’s full-stack AI factory platform technology. When fully operational in 2027, these deployments are expected to deliver 65 MW of AI computing capacity. To strengthen its position in the rapidly evolving AI cloud market, NBIS inked an agreement to acquire Eigen AI in May.

MSFT capitalizes on the momentum of the AI business and Copilot adoption, alongside the expansion of Azure cloud infrastructure. In July, Microsoft launched MAI-Cyber-1-Flash, its first cybersecurity-specialized AI model, alongside a new agentic security platform called Project Perception, with the company claiming the model — when combined with OpenAI's GPT-5.4 inside its MDASH vulnerability management harness — delivers 96% on the CyberGym benchmark at 50% of the cost of its current MDASH configuration. Multi-model flexibility, paired with continued access to OpenAI's frontier models under an IP arrangement extending to 2032, allows customers to optimize cost and performance while keeping Microsoft central to their AI infrastructure decisions.

CRWV’s Price Performance, Valuations and EstimatesShares of CoreWeave have gained 25.3% year to date against the Internet Software industry’s fall of 5.6%.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

In terms of Price/Book, CRWV’s shares are trading at 8X, higher than the Internet Software Services industry’s 4.35X.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for CRWV’s earnings for the current year has been revised downward over the past 60 days.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

CRWV currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

David Tepper‘s latest portfolio update suggests the billionaire hedge fund manager is expanding his AI playbook beyond the industry’s familiar names.

While Appaloosa Management increased stakes in Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA), Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd. (NYSE:TSM), Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG) during the second quarter, its newest AI-related position was cloud infrastructure provider CoreWeave, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWV), underscoring a growing focus on the companies powering artificial intelligence rather than just building it.

David Tepper Adds CoreWeave to Growing AI PortfolioAccording to Appaloosa Management’s latest Form 13F, Tepper initiated a new position in CoreWeave worth about $107.3 million during the second quarter. The fund also established a new stake in Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO), another key supplier to AI infrastructure, while increasing existing holdings in Nvidia, TSMC, Amazon, Alphabet and Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META).

The filing shows Tepper’s AI exposure extends well beyond chip designers. CoreWeave, one of the largest providers of GPU cloud infrastructure for AI workloads, joins a portfolio that already includes semiconductor leaders, hyperscale cloud beneficiaries and companies supporting the computing backbone behind generative AI.

It’s worth noting that 13F filings are a snapshot of holdings as of June 30, 2026, and don’t reflect any portfolio changes Appaloosa may have made after the quarter ended.

Read Next

Tepper Rebalanced Within AI as He Trimmed Other Tech HoldingsThe new CoreWeave investment came alongside several notable portfolio adjustments. Appaloosa reduced its stakes in Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) and Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU), while exiting positions in Corning Inc (NYSE:GLW), Sandisk Corp (NASDAQ:SNDK) and Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) altogether.

The filing doesn’t explain Tepper’s investment rationale, and 13Fs don’t reveal when trades were made during the quarter or whether some positions serve as hedges. However, the disclosed holdings show capital moving toward a concentrated group of AI infrastructure leaders while several legacy technology positions were reduced or eliminated.

Outside technology, Tepper also initiated new positions in Boeing Co (NYSE:BA), American Airlines Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAL) and The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company (NASDAQ:GT), while exiting holdings including Lyft, Inc. (NASDAQ:LYFT), JD.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:JD), PDD Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:PDD), RTX Corp (NYSE:RTX), UnitedHealth Group Inc (NYSE:UNH) and Ball Corp (NYSE:BALL).

The number of disclosed holdings fell from 31 to 27 even as the reported portfolio value increased to approximately $7.7 billion from $5.9 billion, reflecting a more concentrated portfolio.

What Investors Should Watch NextCoreWeave’s addition is notable not because it is Appaloosa’s largest new position, but because it broadens Tepper’s exposure to a critical layer of the AI ecosystem. Investors should watch whether future filings show Appaloosa building on that position or whether the fund continues consolidating capital around companies tied to AI computing infrastructure as enterprise demand for AI capacity grows.

Read Next

Photo: PJ McDonnell / Shutterstock

© 2026 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

Michael N. Intrator, the CEO and president of CoreWeave, Inc. (CRWV -0.97%), reported the sale of 307,692 shares of Class A Common Stock on August 11, according to a recent SEC Form 4 filing.

Transaction summaryMetricValueTransaction value$27.4 millionShares sold (total)307,692Shares sold (directly)200,000Shares sold (indirectly)107,692Post-transaction shares (directly held)1,876,815Transaction value based on SEC Form 4 weighted average sale price ($89.18); post-transaction value based on the August 11 market close ($90.32).

Key questionsWhat is the context for the pricing and timing of this disposition?
Shares were sold at a weighted-average price of $89.18 per share on a date when the company's one-year total return was down by about 30%. As of the August 12, 2026 market close, the stock was priced at $107.73, so it's since recovered a fair amount of losses.What remaining equity exposure does the CEO maintain in the company?
Following this transaction, Michael N. Intrator maintains roughly 1.9 million directly held shares and substantial derivative holdings of 21.9 million direct and 30 million indirect securities.Who are the indirect beneficial owners associated with the remaining holdings?
Indirect equity exposure remains through derivative securities held by the reporting person's spouse, the PMI 2024 F&F GRAT, the Intrator Family GST-Exempt Trust, and the Intrator Family Trust.Company OverviewMetricValueShare Price (as of market close 2026-08-12)$107.73Market Capitalization$58.8 billionRevenue (TTM)$6.2 billionNet Income (TTM)-$1.6 billionCompany SnapshotCoreWeave operates a specialized cloud computing platform providing high-performance GPU and CPU compute resources, storage solutions, advanced networking capabilities, and fully managed services designed to support generative AI and intensive compute workloads for large enterprises.The company generates revenue through flexible consumption-based pricing models, offering clients the choice between virtual servers and bare-metal infrastructure solutions tailored to their computational requirements.CoreWeave serves large enterprises and organizations requiring substantial computational capacity for generative AI applications, machine learning workloads, and data-intensive processing operations.CoreWeave is a specialized infrastructure provider serving the high-growth generative AI market, with $6.2 billion in TTM revenue and a market capitalization of $58.8 billion. The company's competitive positioning centers on delivering purpose-built GPU and CPU infrastructure optimized for AI workloads, addressing the critical infrastructure gap created by surging demand for generative AI capabilities among enterprise customers. Despite current net losses of $1.6 billion TTM, CoreWeave's substantial revenue base and market valuation reflect investor confidence in the structural growth of AI infrastructure demand.

What this transaction means for investorsIntrator sold about 308,000 shares but still holds tens of millions more through direct stock, options, and family trusts, so this trim, priced below where the stock closed, is a sliver of a co-founder's stake rather than a retreat from it. The sale barely registers against the position he keeps.

What actually matters is the machine he's built and how it's paid for. CoreWeave grew second-quarter revenue 112% to $2.6 billion, doubled adjusted EBITDA to $1.5 billion, and sits on a contracted backlog above $100 billion, the kind of demand that led management to raise full-year guidance again. Alongside the latest earnings report, Intrator said the company "reached an important inflection point this quarter as our scale began to translate into expanding operating leverage." The other side of that growth is roughly $35 billion in debt, taken on to buy Nvidia chips and build the data centers that revenue runs through, so CoreWeave is racing to convert breakneck expansion into profits before borrowing costs catch up. That race is key to the investment thesis now. Bond markets recently priced real odds of trouble here, and this quarter pushed back on them, but a company still losing money on a $35 billion debt load lives or dies by whether the backlog keeps converting.

Jonathan Ponciano has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Sachin Jain, the chief operating officer of the firm, reported a sale of 13,608 shares of CoreWeave, Inc. (CRWV -0.97%) on August 10, according to an SEC Form 4 filing.

Transaction summaryMetricValueTransaction value$1.3 millionShares sold13,608Post-transaction shares (directly held)147,785Post-transaction value$13.03 millionTransaction value based on SEC Form 4 weighted average sale price ($92.09); post-transaction value based on the August 10 market close ($88.19).

Key questionsWhat were the primary drivers behind this disposal?
The transaction was primarily conducted to meet tax liabilities incurred from the vesting of restricted stock units. This suggests the sale was part of the company's structured compensation plan rather than a discretionary trading decision by the executive based on market conditions.How does this impact the insider's total exposure to the company?
Despite the 8% reduction in direct Class A Common Stock holdings, Jain maintains significant equity alignment with 148,000 shares and 270,000 derivative securities. This remaining stake indicates a continued interest in the firm's operational performance and long-term valuation.What is the context of the stock's recent performance?
The transaction was executed at $92.09 per share, occurring in a period where CoreWeave shares have seen a steep decline over the 12-month period ending on the August 10 transaction date.Company OverviewMetricValueShare Price (as of market close 2026-08-10)$88.19Market Capitalization$50 billionRevenue (TTM)$6.2 billionNet Income (TTM)-$1.6 billionCompany SnapshotCoreWeave provides a specialized cloud computing platform delivering high-performance GPU and CPU compute resources, storage solutions, advanced networking capabilities, and fully managed services designed to support generative AI and intensive compute workloads for enterprise clients.The company generates revenue through a consumption-based cloud services model, offering flexible virtual servers and bare-metal infrastructure options that enable enterprises to scale compute resources according to their specific workload requirements.CoreWeave primarily serves large enterprises and organizations requiring substantial computational capacity for generative AI applications, machine learning workloads, and data-intensive operations across multiple industry verticals.CoreWeave operates as a specialized infrastructure-as-a-service provider focused on the high-performance computing segment, with a market capitalization of $50 billion and TTM revenue of $6.2 billion. The company's competitive positioning centers on delivering optimized GPU and CPU infrastructure specifically architected for generative AI workloads, addressing the growing demand from enterprises seeking dedicated, high-performance alternatives to general-purpose cloud providers. Despite current net losses of $1.6 billion TTM, CoreWeave's substantial revenue base and market valuation reflect investor confidence in the secular growth trajectory of AI infrastructure demand.

What this transaction means for investorsOne day before CoreWeave told investors how the second quarter went, its operating chief exercised stock options and sold a portion to cover the tax. Jain kept the vast majority of his holdings, so the move itself is unremarkable, but CoreWeave is in the middle of proving itself after successfully pivoting from an Ethereum crypto-mining firm to a GPU infrastructure provider for artificial intelligence, which now sees the firm racing to fill orders already on the books.

That race is going well, but carries some risk. CoreWeave grew quarterly revenue 112% to $2.6 billion against a backlog that now tops $100 billion, but a large share of that backlog traces to a handful of enormous customers, with Microsoft and OpenAI among the biggest. So the operation Jain oversees is scaling well while leaning on a short list of buyers. Still, management raised guidance and keeps signing new commitments, which widens that base over time.

Jonathan Ponciano has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Wall Street treats GPUs like disposable electronics. CoreWeave (CRWV -1.10%) is running them like long-duration infrastructure.

What's the deal with this stock? CoreWeave is borrowing tens of billions of dollars to buy Nvidia (NVDA +0.10%) chips and rent them to AI software builders. The bear case against the stock is simple: Graphics chips age quickly. If Nvidia launches faster processors every 12 months, three-year-old chips should become useless, trapping CoreWeave in a cycle of taking on new debt just to replace dying hardware.

That theory has a flaw. The real-world contract data shows older chips are not dying.

Fully depreciated on paper. Fully rented in reality. Image source: The Motley Fool.

Wall Street thinks GPUs decay like iPhones. The contracts say otherwise. On its Q2 2026 earnings call, CoreWeave disclosed a multi-year renewal on a cluster of Nvidia A100 GPUs extending into 2029. Nvidia introduced the A100 in 2020. That means an architecture introduced in 2020 can still generate contracted cash flow nearly a decade later.

Management explicitly laid out the mechanism: As earlier-generation fleets finish their initial contracts, they deliver returns in subsequent years because much of the underlying capital burden has already been paid down. Wall Street models assumed older GPUs would be retired or deeply discounted. Instead, they are staying online at attractive prices.

Older chips do not need to win benchmarks to make money Scarcity explains part of this demand. Power connections take 18 to 24 months to build, so software teams rent whatever active compute is available today. But the longer-term mechanism is workload cascading.

The newest chips naturally get the jobs where speed matters most. Older chips can move down the stack to fine-tuning, inference, coding workloads, and smaller models where customers care more about cost than benchmark leadership.

As the market matures, compute demand splits by cost and task:

Frontier pre-training: Uses top-tier processors like Blackwell because raw speed dictates training time.

Fine-tuning and domain adaptation: Moves to previous-generation chips like the H100, where customers can trade some speed for a lower cost.

Inference and everyday applications: Operates on older architectures like the A100.

An older GPU does not need to beat a new chip on raw speed. It only needs to be cheap and reliable enough for tasks that do not justify top-tier pricing.

The second lease is where the real economics live The economics of a GPU cluster change after its initial contract. During the first lease (typically three to five years), customer payments recover a substantial portion of the original hardware cost and service the debt used to buy it. By the time that lease expires, the unrecovered capital burden sitting on those servers drops significantly.

Second and third leases operate on a different financial equation. Power, facility rent, and maintenance still cost money. But the heavy debt service and capital recovery are largely finished. Every dollar of revenue from a renewal generates higher incremental returns on already-recovered capital.

That creates an asset-management flywheel: The initial contract carries most of the capital burden. The extension monetizes an asset whose original investment has already been substantially recovered.

Lenders are now betting on what happens after year three Debt markets are beginning to price in this residual value. Historically, lenders matched GPU debt maturities directly to the length of the underlying customer contract. CoreWeave's $2.6 billion DDTL 5.5 debt facility broke that pattern. The debt carries a five-year maturity, but the customer contracts backing it average only three years.

That gap matters. Lenders are accepting exposure beyond the initial customer lock-in, which suggests they are increasingly comfortable underwriting some residual economic value after the first contract ends.

Nvidia is building a broader framework around this concept. It partnered with a consortium of six major asset managers and banks (Apollo, BlackRock, Blackstone, Brookfield, Goldman Sachs, and KKR) to mobilize over $500 billion of private capital, explicitly aiming to turn AI compute into a recognized investable asset class. Reporting indicates Nvidia may even provide limited residual-value support on certain debt structures. When equipment suppliers and private credit markets back residual value, GPU compute stops looking like disposable tech hardware and starts looking more like financed infrastructure.

Verdict: The asset machine is working, but leverage is the price of admission CoreWeave is making a clear trade-off. It is taking on heavy debt and significant near-term interest drag to build a massive pool of infrastructure. That strategy fails if older GPUs lose their rental value quickly.

The A100 extension shows that older GPUs can remain economically useful far longer than the bear case assumes. CoreWeave's real advantage is not just getting new Nvidia chips first. It is extracting cash from second and subsequent contracts on hardware the market assumed would be obsolete.

Watch what happens as the first H100 contracts mature and how cheaply CoreWeave can continue financing project-level infrastructure. If older fleets keep renewing at attractive economics while SPV financing remains cheap, the residual-value thesis gets stronger.

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SummaryCoreWeave delivered a standout Q2, with revenue up 112% YoY to $2.6B and backlog surging to $104.2B.Despite robust demand and raised guidance, CRWV's capital intensity and weak return-on-capital constrain its investment appeal.Adjusted EBITDA margin hit 59%, but adjusted operating margin was just 5%, with D&A of $1.39B and CapEx projected at $35–39B for 2026.I rate CoreWeave a Hold; demand and operational progress are strong, but sustainable, attractive returns remain unproven.NicoElNino/iStock via Getty Images

CoreWeave (CRWV) (CRWV:CA) reported Q2 earnings yesterday, and in my view, this was probably the most important quarter the company has delivered since going public. What caught my attention is that CoreWeave finally showed the

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CoreWeave, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWV) stock jumped in Wednesday’s premarket session as investors focused on stronger AI compute pricing, higher revenue guidance and continued demand for large-scale AI infrastructure.

The company said it raised prices by about 25% across AI compute offerings in July to reflect strong demand and higher component costs, including more expensive GPUs.

Management also said demand for NVIDIA’s Vera Rubin platform remains "enormous," while contribution margins on new deals are rising by 5 to 10 percentage points.

CoreWeave lifted its full-year 2026 revenue forecast to $12.4 billion to $13.2 billion and guided third-quarter revenue to $3.45 billion to $3.6 billion.

Backlog Signals Strong AI DemandJefferies analyst Brent Thill said CoreWeave remains a key AI infrastructure vendor as backlog growth points to healthy demand.

Thill told CNBC that CoreWeave ended the quarter with about $99 billion in backlog and moved closer to $130 billion after signing additional business early in the current quarter.

He said that growth shows demand remains strong and that the broader AI trade remains intact as hyperscalers keep increasing capital spending.

Profitability Remains A Key Watch PointHe said CoreWeave benefits from a supply-constrained environment where customers continue to seek more capacity. However, he said investors still need more clarity on whether the company can become profitable and evolve over the next three years into a software-enabled cloud platform.

Thill said several metrics looked slightly above consensus, but he described the quarter as stable rather than a blowout. He also said CoreWeave must manage rising infrastructure costs, generate proper returns after financing costs and address concerns about insider selling.

Top ETF ExposureSignificance: Because CRWV carries such a heavy weight in these funds, any significant inflows or outflows for these ETFs will likely force automatic buying or selling of the stock.

Price ActionCRWV Stock Price Activity: CoreWeave shares were trading higher by 17.36% at $106.00 during premarket trading on Wednesday, according to Benzinga Pro data.

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CoreWeave, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWV) will release its second quarter earnings report after the closing bell on Tuesday, Aug. 11.

Analysts expect the Livingston, New Jersey-based company to report a quarterly loss of $1.45 per share, versus a loss of 60 cents per share in the year-ago period. The consensus estimate for CoreWeave’s quarterly revenue is $2.56 billion. It reported $1.21 billion last year, according to Benzinga Pro.

On Aug. 5, CoreWeave announced a multi-year agreement with Solidigm for priority access to enterprise SSD capacity.

CoreWeave shares fell 2.7% to close at $88.19 on Monday.

Benzinga readers can access the latest analyst ratings on the Analyst Stock Ratings page. Readers can sort by stock ticker, company name, analyst firm, rating change or other variables.

Let’s have a look at how Benzinga’s most-accurate analysts have rated the company in the recent period.

Citigroup analyst Tyler Radke maintained a Buy rating and cut the price target from $158 to $142 on Aug. 5, 2026. This analyst has an accuracy rate of 68%. Rosenblatt analyst John McPeake maintained a Buy rating with a price target of $250 on Aug. 5, 2026. This analyst has an accuracy rate of 50%. Piper Sandler analyst James Fish initiated coverage on the stock with an Overweight rating and a price target of $151 on Aug. 3, 2026. This analyst has an accuracy rate of 70%. Truist Securities analyst Arvind Ramnani upgraded the stock from Hold to Buy and cut the price target from $131 to $126 on July 22, 2026. This analyst has an accuracy rate of 51%. Baird analyst Rob Oliver initiated coverage on the stock with an Outperform rating and a price target of $100 on July 22, 2026. This analyst has an accuracy rate of 56%. Considering buying CRWV stock? Here’s what analysts think:

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There’s a version of the CoreWeave story where everything is going right.

Revenue is more than doubling year over year. The contracted backlog stands near $100 billion. Fleet capacity is effectively sold out, pricing is holding, and the customer list reads like a directory of the frontier AI industry.

And yet the stock has fallen more than 30% over the past year and sits about 50% below its all-time high. When the operating story and the share price diverge this sharply, it usually means the market is asking a question the income statement hasn’t answered yet.

CoreWeave gets its next chance this evening after the closing bell. What does the report actually hinge on?

Image Source: StockCharts

What Tuesday Is Supposed to Look LikeThe Zacks Consensus Estimate calls for a second-quarter loss of $1.17 per share on revenues of $2.5 billion. That revenue figure implies growth of roughly 109% year over year — a genuinely extraordinary number for a company of this size — and sits comfortably within management’s own guidance band of $2.45 to $2.6 billion.

The bottom line is where the discomfort lives. That $1.17/share loss estimate has widened 14.71% over the past 60 days and represents a deterioration of more than 300% from the year-ago figure. Analysts, in other words, have spent the last two months marking their loss expectations lower, not higher.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

The track record heading in is mixed. CoreWeave has missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in three of the trailing four quarters while beating once, with an average surprise of 3.8%. Our proven model does not predict an earnings beat this time around, and the stock carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

That combination isn’t a forecast of disaster — it simply means the statistical edge you’d want heading into a volatile print isn’t present. And volatile it should be: options markets are pricing in a post-earnings move of roughly 15.5% in either direction.

The Number That Actually MattersRevenue will grab the headline, but remaining performance obligations — the contracted revenue CoreWeave (CRWV - Free Report) has signed but not yet recognized — is the metric that will move the stock. As of the first quarter, that backlog stood at $99.4 billion, anchored by relationships with OpenAI, Meta, Microsoft, and Anthropic, alongside newer engagements with firms like Cline and Perplexity.

The bull case rests entirely on conversion. Revenue only gets recognized once data center capacity is delivered and switched on, not when a contract is signed. CoreWeave has surpassed a gigawatt of active power with more than 3.5 gigawatts contracted, targeting 8 gigawatts by 2030, and its first self-build facility is expected online later this year.

If that capacity arrives on schedule, the backlog converts and the margin profile steepens dramatically. Watch for the updated backlog figure Tuesday; growth from $99.4 billion would signal demand is still outrunning capacity, while a flat or declining number would raise harder questions.

The Balance Sheet Has Become the StoryHere’s what changed this year. CoreWeave built its position by borrowing aggressively — against future revenue and against the GPUs themselves — and that worked beautifully while the narrative was pure growth.

But things become problematic once interest expense starts consuming the income statement. The company closed the first quarter with roughly $25 billion in debt after raising $8.5 billion in new debt during the quarter alone, and interest expense is expected to climb to as much as $730 million in the second quarter.

Management also raised full-year capital expenditure guidance to $31–$35 billion, citing higher component costs and the spending required to bring new capacity online. That component-cost pressure is the same memory and semiconductor inflation showing up across the AI infrastructure complex — CoreWeave is paying more for the same compute.

The market’s reaction to the first-quarter report in May was instructive: revenue beat, but light second-quarter guidance combined with a higher capex forecast sent shares down around 11%. Investors have made clear they now want to see spending convert to cash.

What’s Genuinely WorkingOn the positive side, CoreWeave demonstrated real technical leadership in the MLPerf Training v6.0 benchmark, training the DeepSeek-V3 671B model in just 2.02 minutes, and it became the first AI cloud provider to complete system-level validation of Nvidia’s Vera Rubin NVL72 architecture.

Nvidia itself increased its investment in the company to $2 billion earlier this year — meaningful validation from the supplier that knows this market best. Adding to the bullish narrative, S&P Global has upgraded the company’s credit rating.

Bottom LineThere’s no denying that the risks are real. Customer concentration remains significant, with a handful of large AI companies driving most of the revenue — and one of them, Meta, has signaled ambitions to expand into cloud infrastructure itself, which would turn a major customer into a competitor.

Profitability remains elusive while insider selling has continued. Tuesday’s report won’t settle the debate, but it will move the goalposts.

Key Takeaways CoreWeave’s latest earnings report is set to be released Tuesday afternoon, with the stock seen swinging up to 13% by the end of the week following the results.Sales are projected to have more than doubled from a year ago, though losses likely widened as the company spends on hardware to increase its compute capacity. CoreWeave is scheduled to release its quarterly earnings after the closing bell Tuesday, with traders expecting a sizable move in the cloud computing provider’s stock.1

Based on current options pricing, CoreWeave (CRWV) stock is seen swinging up to 13% in either direction by the end of the week following the results. A move of that size from Friday’s close could see the shares climb back above $102, or slip as low as $79.

CoreWeave shares have gained nearly 30% since the start of the year, but are close to 35% off their highs leading up to the company’s last report in May, amid worries about delays in data center construction. Shares of the cloud provider, which went public last March, have been boosted this year by deals with big names including Meta Platforms (META) and Nvidia (NVDA), along with its addition to the Nasdaq 100 index.

Why This Matters to Investors CoreWeave’s spending and delays in data center construction have rattled support for the shares lately, though they remain higher for the year.

Bank of America analysts recently wrote that “demand for GPU capacity remains elevated and customer commitments continue to grow, we believe the key debate is less about demand and more about execution,” including how quickly compute capacity can be brought online and the rate at which CoreWeave’s margins can improve.2 Oppenheimer analysts said they see concerns about capacity delays as “overblown.”3

CoreWeave’s second-quarter revenue is expected to have more than doubled year-over-year to $2.56 billion, though its losses likely widened to $1.40 per share, per Visible Alpha, as costs for some hardware components surged.

Analysts are largely bullish on CoreWeave stock, with 11 of the 14 analysts with current ratings tracked by Visible Alpha calling the stock a “buy,” compared to three neutral ratings. Their average price target of about $147 would suggest more than 60% upside from Friday’s close.

When a stock falls more than 40% in just a few months, it's natural to assume something has gone terribly wrong.

Sometimes that's true. A collapsing share price can signal slowing demand, deteriorating fundamentals, or a broken business model. But sometimes, the business remains largely intact while investors simply become less optimistic about its future.

That's exactly the situation investors are trying to figure out with CoreWeave's (CRWV +7.16%) stock. After all, many investors are wondering whether they should stay away -- and take advantage of the pullback. Or pull back from the stock altogether.

Image source: Getty Images.

The business remained intact If investors only looked at the share price, you might assume CoreWeave had reported terrible earnings or lost major customers. Neither happened.

CoreWeave remains one of the leading providers of artificial intelligence (AI) cloud infrastructure, supplying the specialized computing power needed to train and run artificial intelligence models. As AI adoption continues to accelerate, demand for those services remains strong.

To put it into perspective, revenue more than doubled year over year from $1.9 billion to $5.1 billion in 2025. Revenue backlog even hit an all-time high of $99.4 billion in the first quarter of 2026.

The company also continues to work with some of the world's largest AI labs -- such as Meta Platforms and Anthropic -- reinforcing its position as an important player in the industry's rapidly expanding ecosystem.

In short, the business doesn't appear fundamentally weaker than it did a few months ago.

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So why have investors become more cautious? Imagine owning a restaurant that's packed every night. Business is booming, and customers keep coming through the door.

Now imagine that every time you want to serve more customers, you have to spend millions of dollars building another restaurant. At some point, investors stop asking how many people are waiting in line. They start asking whether those expensive new locations will actually earn an attractive return.

That's the challenge CoreWeave faces today. Unlike software companies, which can often add customers with relatively little additional cost, the AI cloud computing company must continually invest billions in GPUs, servers, networking equipment, power infrastructure, and data centers to support future growth. For perspective, it spent $15 billion in capital expenditures in just the past two quarters alone.

Those investments could generate substantial returns if AI demand continues expanding over the next decade. But they also make the business far more capital-intensive -- and therefore riskier.

Adding another layer of uncertainty, technology giants such as Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Meta continue investing aggressively in AI infrastructure. Even if they don't compete directly for every customer, their growing presence means CoreWeave will need to keep proving why customers should choose its platform over much larger rivals.

None of this means the investment thesis is broken. It simply means the market is demanding more evidence before assigning the company a premium valuation.

A falling stock price doesn't automatically make a stock a bargain. But neither does it mean the long-term opportunity has disappeared.

In CoreWeave's case, the long-term thesis appears largely intact. AI infrastructure demand continues to grow, the company remains strategically important to a growing number of AI developers, and its addressable market is likely still enormous.

What's changed is the level of optimism reflected in the share price. That makes today's valuation far more interesting than it was a few weeks ago, especially for those with conviction in the company's prospects.

If you're looking for a stock that will deliver quick gains or move steadily higher with little drama, CoreWeave probably isn't the right choice. The company is still in the early stages of building its business, and the stock could remain highly volatile as investors debate its long-term economics.

But if you have a long investment horizon, believe AI infrastructure will remain one of the defining growth markets of the next decade, and can tolerate significant swings along the way, this pullback looks like an opportunity.

CoreWeave logo is seen in this illustration taken July 20, 2026. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

Aug 4 (Reuters) - AI cloud computing company CoreWeave (CRWV.O), opens new tab said on Tuesday it is expanding into Indonesia and adding three new facilities in ​the country, marking the firm's first data-center presence ‌in the Asia Pacific region.

CoreWeave has benefited from a surge in demand for AI cloud infrastructure globally, as tech companies rush to secure ​the hardware and cloud capacity needed to develop and ​run AI systems. The company has been investing heavily ⁠in its data-center footprint to cater to the demand.

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Here are ​some details on the expansion:

CoreWeave will add a total of ​360 megawatts of contracted power through the three data centers, and will own and operate all three sites.

"Across Asia, enterprises, AI-native companies, and governments ​increasingly need AI compute located close to their data and ​users, driven by both latency-sensitive workloads and data locality requirements. CoreWeave's move... ‌reflects ⁠this shift," the company said.

As part of its Indonesia expansion, CoreWeave will also build and train a local team to operate the new facilities, bolstering the country's AI ambitions.

The facilities add ​to CoreWeave's growing ​global data-center ⁠footprint, with the company operating 49 data centers worldwide as of March.

In May, CoreWeave raised ​the lower end of its 2026 capital spending ​forecast citing ⁠higher component prices amid a shortage of memory chips. The company plans to spend between $31 billion and $35 billion this year.

The company ⁠has ​struck several multi-billion-dollar cloud deals this ​year, including an expanded $21 billion deal with Meta (META.O), opens new tab and multi-year agreement with Claude ​creator Anthropic.

Reporting by Deborah Sophia in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

Michael N. Intrator, CEO and President of CoreWeave, Inc. (CRWV -9.63%), reported the sale of 307,692 shares of Class A Common Stock on July 14, 2026, for a total transaction value of ~$24.9 million, according to a recent SEC Form 4 filing.

Transaction summaryMetricValueTransaction value~$24.9 millionShares sold307,692Shares sold (directly held)200,000Shares sold (indirectly held)107,692Post-transaction shares (directly held)2,676,815Post-transaction shares (indirectly held)0Post-transaction value$213.98 millionTransaction value based on SEC Form 4 weighted average sale price ($80.85); post-transaction value based on July 14, 2026 market close ($79.94).

Key questionsWhat was the context for this transaction?
The sale was executed pursuant to a Rule 10b5-1 trading plan adopted by Michael Intrator on November 20, 2025. These plans allow insiders to schedule stock sales in advance to avoid potential conflicts regarding the possession of non-public material information.How did the transaction impact the insider’s indirect ownership entities?
The disposition included 107,692 shares held indirectly by Omnadora Capital LLC, effectively liquidating the firm's Class A Common Stock position. The insider continues to hold indirect interests through other entities, including the PMI 2024 F&F GRAT, the Intrator Family GST-Exempt Trust, and the Intrator Family Trust.What is the scale of the insider’s remaining equity exposure?
Following the sale, the CEO maintains a direct holding of 2,676,815 shares, representing approximately 0.49% of the company. Furthermore, Intrator holds substantial derivative securities, including 21.9 million direct and 30.6 million indirect options outstanding, which include both vested and unvested awards.How has the stock performed relative to this transaction?
As of the July 15, 2026 market close, shares were priced at $77.12, trailing the $80.85 execution price. On the July 14, 2026 transaction date, CoreWeave had a one-year total return of -40% and a market capitalization of $42.1 billion.Company OverviewMetricValueShare Price (as of market close 2026-07-15)$77.12Market Capitalization$42.1 billionRevenue (TTM)$6.2 billionNet Income (TTM)-$1.6 billionCompany SnapshotCoreWeave operates a specialized cloud computing platform that delivers high-performance GPU and CPU compute resources, storage solutions, advanced networking capabilities, and fully managed services designed to support generative AI and intensive compute workloads for enterprise clients.The company generates revenue through a flexible consumption-based model, offering clients the choice between virtual servers and bare-metal infrastructure solutions tailored to their specific computational requirements.CoreWeave primarily serves large enterprises and organizations requiring significant computational capacity for generative AI applications, machine learning workloads, and data-intensive processing operations.CoreWeave is a leading infrastructure provider for generative AI workloads, commanding a $42.1 billion market cap. The company has established itself as a critical enabler of enterprise AI adoption by providing purpose-built cloud infrastructure optimized for GPU-accelerated computing.

Despite current net losses reflecting the capital-intensive nature of infrastructure expansion, CoreWeave's significant revenue scale and strategic positioning in the high-growth generative AI market underscore its importance as a foundational technology provider.

What this transaction means for investorsCoreWeave CEO Michael Intrator’s July 14 sale of company stock for a weighted average price of $80.85 came at a time when the stock had plunged from its 52-week high of $153.20 reached last October, and continued to fall. Shares eventually dropped to a 52-week low of $60.55 on July 29.

However, Intrator’s sale is not necessarily a cause for investor concern given it was a non-discretionary transaction executed as part of a Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Moreover, his substantial equity holdings totaling millions of shares suggest his interests remain aligned with shareholders.

It appears Intrator, through his ownership of Omnadora Capital LLC, converted some Class B shares into Class A and sold them, reducing Omnadora Capital’s Class A holdings to zero. However, this entity maintains over 23 million Class B shares, post-sale.

CoreWeave stock has fallen as rising credit default swap costs signal heightened risk that the company may default on its billions of dollars in debt. CoreWeave took on the debt to enable construction of data centers outfitted with costly tech infrastructure to support customers seeking computing capacity to run artificial intelligence systems.

Robert Izquierdo has positions in CoreWeave. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Posted by Defense World Staff on Jul 29th, 2026

Atreides Management LP increased its position in shares of CoreWeave Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWV – Free Report) by 33.7% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 810,535 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 204,425 shares during the quarter. CoreWeave comprises about 1.3% of Atreides Management LP’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 22nd largest position. Atreides Management LP owned approximately 0.18% of CoreWeave worth $62,792,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in CRWV. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of CoreWeave by 275.6% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 27,920,979 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,999,421,000 after buying an additional 20,487,478 shares during the period. Proficio Capital Partners LLC lifted its holdings in CoreWeave by 446,194.0% in the third quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 17,851,760 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,443,013,000 after buying an additional 17,847,760 shares during the period. Deutsche Bank AG boosted its stake in CoreWeave by 22,624.0% in the fourth quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 3,812,856 shares of the company’s stock valued at $273,039,000 after acquiring an additional 3,796,077 shares during the last quarter. Altimeter Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in CoreWeave during the 4th quarter worth $230,099,000. Finally, Alyeska Investment Group L.P. grew its holdings in CoreWeave by 300.0% during the 4th quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. now owns 4,000,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $286,440,000 after acquiring an additional 3,000,000 shares during the period.

Insider Transactions at CoreWeave In other news, CEO Michael N. Intrator sold 200,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $78.23, for a total transaction of $15,646,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,476,815 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $193,761,237.45. This represents a 7.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Brannin Mcbee sold 144,000 shares of CoreWeave stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.13, for a total value of $10,818,720.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 323,263 shares in the company, valued at approximately $24,286,749.19. This represents a 30.82% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 16,523,185 shares of company stock worth $1,905,796,200. Corporate insiders own 24.20% of the company’s stock.

CoreWeave News Roundup Here are the key news stories impacting CoreWeave this week:

Positive Sentiment: New AI infrastructure customers: CoreWeave will provide low-latency GPU cloud infrastructure for Anam’s photorealistic AI avatars across the United States and Europe, adding evidence of demand for its specialized services. CRWV Powers Anam’s AI Avatars With Low-Latency Cloud Infrastructure Positive Sentiment: Flow Traders contract: Flow Traders reportedly selected CoreWeave to run AI training supporting its quantitative trading operations. The deal reinforces CoreWeave’s positioning as an AI-focused alternative to traditional cloud providers. CoreWeave Lands Flow Traders To Run AI Training For Quant Trading Neutral Sentiment: Earnings date set: CoreWeave will report second-quarter 2026 results on August 11 after the market closes. Investors are likely looking for progress on revenue growth, cash flow, construction execution and customer concentration. CoreWeave Announces Date of Second Quarter 2026 Financial Results and Conference Call Negative Sentiment: Sector valuation contraction: CoreWeave has fallen about 30% over the past month as investors reassess highly valued AI-cloud companies and question whether rapid growth can justify heavy capital spending and debt. CoreWeave Shares Fall 30% in a Month as AI Cloud Valuations Contract Negative Sentiment: Competitive threat from Meta: Reports that Meta may monetize excess computing capacity through its own cloud offering raise concerns that CoreWeave’s largest customers could become competitors, potentially pressuring utilization and margins. Negative Sentiment: Large insider sales: CEO Michael Intrator and insider Brannin McBee sold roughly $38.9 million of shares in pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 transactions. Although planned sales do not necessarily signal deteriorating fundamentals, their size adds to investor caution during the selloff. Negative Sentiment: Weak financial profile: CoreWeave’s latest reported quarter included an adjusted loss worse than analysts expected, negative margins, significant interest expense and high leverage. Analysts continue to forecast a full-year loss, increasing sensitivity to execution and financing conditions. Analyst Ratings Changes CRWV has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. TD Cowen raised CoreWeave to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 22nd. Sanford C. Bernstein began coverage on CoreWeave in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. They issued an “outperform” rating for the company. Cantor Fitzgerald assumed coverage on CoreWeave in a research note on Wednesday, July 22nd. They issued an “overweight” rating on the stock. Barclays reduced their target price on CoreWeave from $120.00 to $90.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 21st. Finally, Wolfe Research reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of CoreWeave in a research note on Monday, July 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have given a Buy rating, fourteen have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $136.25.

Get Our Latest Stock Report on CoreWeave

CoreWeave Stock Performance Shares of CRWV opened at $67.30 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $30.12 billion, a P/E ratio of -21.64 and a beta of 7.17. CoreWeave Inc. has a twelve month low of $63.80 and a twelve month high of $153.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.68, a quick ratio of 0.31 and a current ratio of 0.31. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $95.73 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $95.32.

CoreWeave (NASDAQ:CRWV – Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported ($1.40) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($1.17) by ($0.23). The company had revenue of $2.08 billion for the quarter. CoreWeave had a negative return on equity of 43.07% and a negative net margin of 25.57%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 111.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned ($0.60) earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that CoreWeave Inc. will post -4.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About CoreWeave (Free Report)

CoreWeave is a U.S.-based provider of GPU-accelerated cloud infrastructure designed to support compute-intensive workloads such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, visual effects rendering and other high-performance computing applications. The company supplies access to large fleets of modern GPUs and complementary infrastructure that enable customers to train and deploy large models, run inference at scale, and process graphics-heavy workloads with low latency and high throughput.

CoreWeave’s product offering includes on-demand and dedicated GPU instances, bare-metal servers, private clusters and managed services tailored for enterprise and developer use.

Recommended Stories Five stocks we like better than CoreWeave These 3 Stocks Have Soared in 2026—Can They Keep Climbing? Hasbro’s Earnings Beat Shows Why This Is No Longer Just a Toy Story Rambus: Another AI Phoenix Ready to Rise From the Ashes of Correction Chips & Clips: Memory Tariffs Rewire Tech Supply Chains Want to see what other hedge funds are holding CRWV? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for CoreWeave Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWV – Free Report).

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CoreWeave (NASDAQ:CRWV) currently trades at $71.88 against a Wall Street consensus price target of $138.03, an implied gap of roughly 92%. One outlier target sits far higher: Rosenblatt Securities analyst John McPeake maintains a Street-high $250 price target, which would imply upside of nearly 248% from here.

CoreWeave rents GPU-accelerated compute to AI labs and hyperscalers, with named customers including Meta, Anthropic, Cohere, Mistral, and Perplexity. The company has assembled a $99.4 billion revenue backlog and became the fastest cloud in history to reach $5 billion in annual revenue.

CoreWeave sits at the center of the AI infrastructure trade, yet its stock has decoupled sharply from the sector it defines.

A Meta Announcement, Insider Selling, and a Heavier Balance Sheet The largest blow came on July 17, when Meta announced a commercial cloud service called Meta Compute, triggering a 35% stock decline on fears the biggest customer would cannibalize the GPU rental market. Shares fell another 11.37% in a single session on July 24. Over one month, CRWV is down 28.75%, and it now sits 40.1% below its price a year ago.

Q1 2026 revenue of $2.078 billion grew 111.7% year over year grew, but net loss widened to $740 million, interest expense doubled to $536 million, and free cash flow ran to negative $4.711 billion. Total liabilities reached $50.814 billion. CEO Michael Intrator sold roughly $24.07 million of stock on July 21 alone, part of a multi-month pattern of executive selling. A securities fraud class action is pending over alleged data center construction delays.

Rosenblatt Says Meta Cannot Legally Cannibalize This The bull case rests on a legal argument. Rosenblatt’s McPeake reiterated his $250 price target after the Meta announcement, asserting that Meta’s contract prevents reselling CoreWeave’s GPU capacity. His broader view is that CoreWeave will evolve into the essential, non-deletable operating layer for specialized AI compute infrastructure as traditional hyperscalers struggle with density, latency, and power constraints.

Analysts watch backlog conversion and power delivery. The $21 billion Meta commitment signed in March 2026, roughly $22.4 billion in total OpenAI commitments, and multi-year deals with Anthropic anchor revenue visibility. CoreWeave surpassed 1 GW of active power with contracted power over 3.5 GW, targeting more than 8 GW by 2030. Being named NVIDIA Exemplar Cloud for inference on NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 reinforces its pole position as workloads shift from training to inference.

Sentiment remains overwhelmingly constructive. Of analysts covering CoreWeave, 4 rate it Strong Buy, 20 Buy, 11 Hold, 1 Sell, and 1 Strong Sell. That is 24 buy-side ratings against 2 bearish calls, with recent updates reiterating rather than downgrading through the July drawdown.

How the Neocloud Peer Group Stacks Up Peer performance diverged sharply from CoreWeave. Two competitors are up triple digits over the past year while CRWV declined.

Nebius Group (NASDAQ:NBIS | NBIS Price Prediction) trades at $187.77, up 260% over one year but off 27.69% in the last month. Its consensus target of $258.13 implies roughly 37% upside, with 9 buy ratings, 6 holds, and 1 sell.

Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and CoreWeave, Inc. Class A Common Stock didn't make the cut. Grab the names FREE today.

IREN (NASDAQ:IREN) sits at $37.07, up 104% year over year. The $81.40 average target implies roughly 120% upside, with 11 buys, 4 holds, and 1 strong sell. Its $3.4 billion NVIDIA AI Cloud contract is the anchor.

Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) trades at $27.19, up 143% over the past year but down 35.23% in the last month. Its $73.05 consensus target implies roughly 169% upside, with 11 buy ratings and zero holds.

APLD carries the largest consensus-implied upside. CoreWeave’s Street-high $250 case from Rosenblatt tops every peer number in the neocloud complex, underscoring how binary the setup has become.

The Numbers Behind a 92% Consensus Gap CoreWeave trades at $71.88 with a market cap near $32.17 billion. The consensus target of $138.03 implies roughly 92% upside; the Rosenblatt outlier at $250 implies roughly 248%. Thirty-seven analysts cover the name.

Year to date, CRWV is up just 0.38% against the S&P 500’s 8.36% gain. Options positioning is closer to neutral than price action suggests, with a full-chain put/call ratio of 0.78.

My Take: A High-Conviction Turnaround With a Real Trapdoor The bull case rests on the $99.4 billion backlog converting to revenue on schedule, power delivery staying on plan, and Meta’s in-house build being unable to resell contracted capacity. In that scenario, the current price looks like an emotional overshoot and Rosenblatt’s thesis about a non-deletable AI compute layer becomes hard to argue against.

The bear case emerges if the balance sheet becomes the story. With $50.8 billion in total liabilities, interest expense doubling, and free cash flow deeply negative, any hiccup in capital markets access or customer concentration could turn this into a value trap that no price target survives.

My lean is cautiously constructive. The bull case is intact, but the risk is asymmetric enough that sizing matters more than conviction here.

Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and CoreWeave, Inc. Class A Common Stock didn't make the cut. Grab the names FREE today.

Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.

CoreWeave (CRWV -11.58%) closed Friday at $71.88, down 11.4% for the session. The drop wiped out the artificial intelligence (AI) cloud provider's entire week and knocked down shares from levels above $86 at one point during the week, leaving shares below Monday's close of $73.06.

The timing is strange. Two days earlier, one of the biggest spenders in AI infrastructure said it wanted more of what CoreWeave sells. Alphabet lifted its 2026 capital spending outlook by $15 billion on Wednesday, to as much as $205 billion. On Alphabet's second-quarter earnings call, chief financial officer Anat Ashkenazi said the company would "expand the use of third-party capacity in Q3 as a bridging strategy."

CoreWeave shares rose in after-hours trading on that comment. But they gave it back Thursday, and more on Friday, alongside fellow neocloud Nebius Group, which fell 15% on Friday alone.

So, what gives? Friday's sell-off for these stocks arguably wasn't a verdict on demand. It was a verdict on what meeting that demand costs.

Here's a closer look.

Image source: The Motley Fool.

The demand story is the easy part CoreWeave's revenue climbed 112% year over year in the first quarter, to $2.08 billion, and its revenue backlog stood at $99.4 billion at the end of March. To be fair, few companies of any size can grow like that.

But the picture thins as you move down the income statement. Non-GAAP (adjusted) earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) came in at $1.16 billion for the quarter, a 56% margin -- down from 62% a year earlier. Adjusted operating income, which charges the quarter for depreciation on all those graphics processing units and data centers, fell year over year to $21 million from $163 million. On that line, the margin went from 17% to 1%. Management expects it to expand each quarter from here, into low double digits by the fourth quarter.

The spending is running years ahead of the revenue But here's the problem.

Management expects capital expenditures of $31 billion to $35 billion this year. CoreWeave's revenue over the past 12 months was about $6.2 billion. That gap may be part of what's spooking investors.

In other words, the company plans to spend about five times its past year's sales on capacity in 2026. Zoom out, and the step-up is steep: CoreWeave reported $14.9 billion in capital expenditures in all of 2025.

One quarter tells the same story. CoreWeave generated $2.98 billion of operating cash flow during the first quarter and spent $7.7 billion on property and equipment.

Debt helps fill that gap. And the interest on it is climbing fast.

Net interest expense was $264 million in the first quarter of 2025. It reached $388 million in the fourth quarter of 2025, then $536 million in the first quarter of 2026. Management guided for $650 million to $730 million in the second quarter.

At that midpoint, CoreWeave's first-half net interest expense this year would nearly match the $1.23 billion it recorded across all of 2025.

And the balance behind it keeps growing. Total debt stood near $24.9 billion at the end of March, up from $21.4 billion three months earlier.

The backlog, meanwhile, arrives slowly. CoreWeave counted $98.8 billion of it as unsatisfied remaining performance obligations (contracted work not yet delivered) at the end of March, and expects to recognize just 36% within 24 months. The rest stretches as far out as seven years.

"This revenue backlog is near-term weighted, with 36% expected to be recognized in the next 24 months and 75% in the next four years," chief financial officer Nitin Agrawal said on CoreWeave's first-quarter earnings call.

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Near-term weighted is one way to put it. The spending happens this year, the interest accrues every quarter, and about two-thirds of that revenue isn't due until after March 2028.

And competition is a concern, too. Bloomberg reported on July 1 that Meta Platforms is building a cloud business to sell surplus AI computing capacity to outside customers. Meta also committed $21 billion to CoreWeave earlier this year, so one of the company's biggest customers may be preparing to compete with it.

So does an 11% drop make the stock cheap? At about $39 billion, CoreWeave's market value is still about six times its trailing-12-month revenue -- too high, in my opinion, for a company as speculative as this one.