CoreWeave shares plunge 13% as $35 billion AI spending plan triggers investor concerns

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CoreWeave's stock tumbled after the AI cloud infrastructure provider announced plans to more than double capital expenditure to $35 billion in 2026. The company posted a wider-than-expected loss of 89 cents per share while revenue hit $1.57 billion. Despite a $66.8 billion revenue backlog and partnerships with OpenAI and Microsoft, investors worry about margin pressure and the company's ability to deliver returns on massive infrastructure investments.

CoreWeave Reports Wider Loss Amid Aggressive Infrastructure Buildout

CoreWeave shares fell as much as 13% in extended trading after the cloud infrastructure provider reported fourth-quarter results that revealed the true cost of competing in the AI infrastructure race

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. The company posted an adjusted loss of 89 cents per share, significantly wider than the 72 cents analysts had anticipated

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. Revenue reached $1.57 billion, narrowly beating the $1.55 billion projection, representing 110% year-over-year growth

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. The Livingston, New Jersey-based company's net loss widened dramatically to $452 million at the end of the quarter, compared to just $51 million a year earlier

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Source: Reuters

Source: Reuters

Capital Expenditure Surge Sparks Investor Concerns About Returns

The most striking revelation came in CoreWeave's capital expenditure guidance, with the company committing $30 billion to $35 billion for 2026—more than double the $14.9 billion spent in 2025

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. This massive AI spending increase triggered immediate investor concerns about margin pressure and whether the company can generate adequate returns from such substantial infrastructure investments

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. CoreWeave acknowledged that the increased spending will put "short-term pressure on the margins"

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. The company's financial position differs sharply from hyperscale competitors—CoreWeave held $3.13 billion in cash and equivalents, compared with Microsoft's $24.3 billion and Amazon's $86.8 billion

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Surging Demand for AI Drives Capacity Expansion Plans

Despite the stock drop, CoreWeave CEO Michael Intrator emphasized the company is "virtually sold out in 2026 of all of our capacity"

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. The company's revenue backlog swelled to $66.8 billion from $55.6 billion just three months prior, demonstrating robust surging demand for AI compute resources

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. CoreWeave ended the fiscal year with 850 megawatts of active power capacity while contracted power stood at 3.1 gigawatts

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. The company aims to bring 1.7 gigawatts of active power online by the end of 2026 and ultimately plans to add over five gigawatts beyond its contracted footprint by 2030

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. Intrator noted demand is "exploding into the enterprise" beyond initial hyperscaler clouds and foundation models

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Source: Motley Fool

Source: Motley Fool

Strategic Partnerships and Nvidia Chips Supply Challenges

CoreWeave operates dozens of data centers primarily equipped with Nvidia GPUs, renting those chips to enterprise customers and AI model developers including OpenAI, Meta Platforms, and Microsoft

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. Nvidia invested an additional $2 billion in CoreWeave last month to accelerate efforts to add more than 5 gigawatts of AI computing capacity by 2030, with CoreWeave positioned among the first to deploy forthcoming Nvidia products

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. However, Intrator acknowledged Nvidia chips remain in short supply, putting upward pressure on prices

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. Any disruption to chip supply could hamper CoreWeave's infrastructure plans and leave it with a revenue backlog it cannot fulfill

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Source: SiliconANGLE

Source: SiliconANGLE

Debt Load and Revenue Forecast Create Mixed Outlook

CoreWeave's aggressive expansion strategy has led to dramatic increases in borrowing, with reported debt standing at $21.37 billion as of December 31

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. The company's adjusted leverage stood at about 6.9 times as of September 30, and it's expected to burn cash for at least the next 18 months amid heavy capital expenditures, according to Moody's Ratings

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. CoreWeave is looking to raise about $8.5 billion from banks including Morgan Stanley to help finance a buildout of cloud computing capacity for Meta

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. For fiscal 2026, the company guided for revenue of $12 billion to $13 billion, slightly above the Street's $12.09 billion consensus

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. However, first-quarter revenue forecast of $1.9 billion to $2 billion fell well below the $2.29 billion target, disappointing investors

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. The company expects to exit 2026 with annualized run-rate revenue between $17 billion and $19 billion, projecting that figure will surpass $30 billion by the end of 2027

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