CoreWeave Launches AI-Focused Venture Fund, Boosting Stock and Strategy

CoreWeave stock rises after announcing new AI venture fund

CoreWeave has always sold shovels in the AI gold rush. Now it wants a stake in the miners, too. The GPU-cloud startup said Tuesday that it's launching CoreWeave Ventures, which will bankroll AI startups with both cash and scarce computing power. Investors didn't need to hear much more than that -- the stock snapped almost 9% in morning trading on the news, a rare pop for a name that has spent the past few months bouncing between hype and hangover. The pitch is simple: Early-stage companies get something that's even harder to raise than venture capital: accelerated access to the kind of Nvidia hardware that's booked out for years. In return, CoreWeave takes an equity slice and a front-row seat to technologies that might become tomorrow's compute hogs. The fund is overseen by CoreWeave co-founder and chief development officer Brannin McBee and is seeded straight from the balance sheet. McBee told the Wall Street Journal that the checks could be "seven to nine figures." Already, CoreWeave has backed nine young companies -- including Toronto's Moonvalley -- and last week it went further, announcing it would acquire OpenPipe, a niche startup building reinforcement-learning tools for AI agents. That deal underscores the point that this isn't intended to be a passive fund; it's built to be a mechanism to pull promising projects directly into CoreWeave's orbit. "It's an interesting bidirectional pipeline opportunity for us," McBee said to the Journal. For Wall Street, the appeal is obvious. A venture arm is more than a shiny side project; every bet CoreWeave makes has the potential to come back as both equity upside and a paying customer locked into its infrastructure. In an environment where GPU clouds are threatening to look interchangeable, that kind of pipeline building is a moat. The company's move also taps into a broader 2025 theme where corporations are stepping into the vacuum left by traditional venture firms, with balance sheets acting as both investors and distributors. The timing is no accident. CoreWeave's second-quarter numbers were eye-popping on the top line -- revenue of $1.21 billion, up more than 200% from a year earlier, with a backlog swelling to $30 billion on the strength of contracts with OpenAI and a major hyperscaler. But the growth hasn't come cheap. And investors haven't been too happy. The company posted a GAAP net loss of nearly $300 million thanks to heavy interest costs and billions in capacity spending. It's the classic paradox of the AI infrastructure boom: soaring demand paired with equally staggering costs, leaving investors constantly asking whether the model scales -- and if it even can. Since its March IPO at $40 a share, CoreWeave has more than doubled, but volatility has defined the ride. A lock-up expiration in August unleashed insider selling, and its planned $9 billion all-stock acquisition of Core Scientific has looked shakier as shares wobbled. Against that backdrop, Tuesday's stock bounce stood out not because it was dramatic, but because it was anchored in something tangible -- a strategy that ties CoreWeave's fortunes directly to the startups most likely to need its GPUs. CoreWeave Ventures won't erase the headaches of building power-hungry data centers (both because of power constraints and the massive spending required to keep scaling) or the scrutiny that comes with being the newest public AI darling. But the Venture does give the company a way to script its own demand curve. If even a fraction of its portfolio companies grow into serious players, CoreWeave will be in the enviable position of getting paid twice -- first as an investor, then as the indispensable landlord of their infrastructure. For a business built on compute cycles, that's the kind of perpetual motion machine Wall Street is happy to reward.

CoreWeave Stock Rises on News of Nvidia-Backed Firm's VC Fund for AI Investments

CoreWeave (CRWV) shares gained 4% in morning trading after the artificial intelligence (AI) cloud computing platform announced plans to support new AI efforts. The Nvidia-backed company said it was starting CoreWeave Ventures to provide "investment resources, technical expertise, and compute" to help AI founders bring new ideas to the market more quickly. The assistance will range "from direct capital investment and compute-for-equity transactions to technical collaboration and go-to-market opportunities." Co-founder and Chief Development Officer Brannin McBee explained CoreWeave Ventures is designed "to give other audacious, like-minded founders the support they need to drive technical advancements and bring to market the next class of innovation." The company noted that CoreWeave Ventures "is already working with a diverse group of innovators, from foundational model developers building novel large language models to pioneers in vertical AI applications and infrastructure." Shares of CoreWeave, which only began publicly trading in March, are up about 150% since then.

CoreWeave Stock Jumps As New Ventures Arm Backs AI Startups With Capital And Cloud Power - CoreWeave (NASDAQ:CRWV)

Artificial intelligence hyperscaler CoreWeave CRWV is trading higher on Tuesday after announcing the launch of CoreWeave Ventures, a fund and support initiative for founders developing platforms and technologies that drive the next phase of artificial intelligence and computing innovation. The initiative provides capital, computing resources, and technical expertise to accelerate new ideas into real-world applications as demand for AI infrastructure and tools grows across industries. The program offers startups access to CoreWeave's AI-optimized cloud, production-grade testing clusters, and go-to-market guidance shaped by its enterprise network. Also Read: CoreWeave Growth Fueled By OpenAI Contracts, Strategic Acquisition, Says Analyst Founders can engage through investment, compute-for-equity arrangements, or a technology partner who wants to build a community of participants, including advanced developers and vertical AI application builders. Companies like Moonvalley credit CoreWeave for helping them scale faster and focus on innovation. By combining capital with deep technical alignment, CoreWeave Ventures is a launchpad for entrepreneurs who want to build the AI ecosystem and advance computing's future. CoreWeave stock plunged 40% in the last three months after failing to reach adjusted EPS consensus estimates in the previous two quarters. The stock tanked 19% after the AI cloud provider posted second-quarter revenue of $1.21 billion, up 23.5% sequentially and ahead of estimates, alongside a backlog that swelled to $30.1 billion. Despite the beat, investors reacted to margin pressure and guidance that highlighted heavy near-term costs from ramping capacity toward 900MW by year-end. Stifel's Ruben Roy said CoreWeave beat on revenue and operating income, driven by new contracts with OpenAI and major hyperscalers, but he flagged margin weakness and higher costs. HC Wainwright's Kevin Dede called the quarter "blockbuster," citing strong adoption across consumer and enterprise markets. At the same time, Needham's Mike Cikos pointed to robust backlog growth as a future revenue driver, even as execution and supplier risks loom from aggressive expansion. CRWV Price Action: CoreWeave shares are trading higher by 7.77% to $100.70 at publication on Tuesday. Read Next: DraftKings Faces Parlay Blow As NFL Betting Action Heats Up Photo: Shutterstock CRWVCoreWeave Inc$102.079.11%Stock Score Locked: Edge Members Only Benzinga Rankings give you vital metrics on any stock - anytime. Unlock RankingsEdge RankingsMomentumN/APrice TrendShortMediumLongOverviewMarket News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs