CoreWeave's Stock Soars Amid AI Boom, Despite Analyst Downgrade

CoreWeave gets its first downgrade since IPO

Barclays is moving to the sidelines on CoreWeave after the stock's massive rally since going public. The firm downgraded CoreWeave to equal weight from overweight on Monday. It did raise its price target to $100 per share from $70, but that implies upside of just 3%. CoreWeave has been on a tear since its initial public offering on March 28 . In that time, the stock has surged 156.9%. The company priced its IPO at $40 per share. In May alone, shares have soared 148%. Analyst Raimo Lenschow said he's optimistic on the stock long term, but added that the short-term upside is limited. CRWV YTD mountain CoreWeave stock in 2025. "At current levels, CoreWeave is trading at a 41x EV/EBIT CY26 multiple (assuming ~$31.4bn in gross debt in CY26), and while we expect growth to remain strong, we are not sure there are fundamental arguments to push this much higher, with the company trading at a healthy premium already to the rest of the space," Lenschow said. "We continue to like CRWV for its long-term opportunity and exposure to the GenAI theme, but given valuation and lacking a near-term catalyst, see limited upside in the near-term from here." The AI cloud computing company's IPO was the largest in the tech sector since 2021. The firm is backed by AI darling Nvidia and rents out access to the chipmaker's graphics processing units to peer technology companies. "It is important not to undersell CoreWeave as one of the first pure-play GenAI stories in software," Lenschow said. "The company addresses a large TAM across both training and inference workloads, and we continue to see a strong growth opportunity for the business in the near- and medium-term, with the 420% y/y revenue growth in Q1 evidence of healthy momentum." Several Wall Street shops last month issued bullish ratings on the stock last month , after a blackout period ended. JPMorgan, Bank of America and Barclays were among those who initiated coverage with a buy-equivalent rating. However, Barclays is now the first firm on the Street to downgrade the stock.

CoreWeave Sees 195% Rally - Short Squeeze Ahead? - CoreWeave (NASDAQ:CRWV)

CoreWeave Inc CRWV, the Nvidia Corp NVDA-backed AI infrastructure upstart, has been on a tear -- soaring nearly 195% over the past month and tacking on another 38% over the past five days. But beneath the parabolic rise lies a swelling undercurrent of skepticism: short interest ballooned from 18% in late April to 45% last week, according to S3 Partners. CoreWeave Stock Rally: Storm Before The Squeeze? That kind of surge in bearish bets, coinciding with a triple-digit rally, has traders wondering if CoreWeave is ground zero for the market's next big short squeeze. Beth Kindig, tech analyst and founder of I/O Fund, spotlighted the squeeze potential, noting on X that CoreWeave's "150% rally in May has been met with surging short bets." The sudden spike in short interest -- nearly tripling -- signals mounting conviction among bears even as bulls celebrate. Read Also: CoreWeave (CRWV) Stock Hits All-Time High Amid AI Momentum, Strategic Deals Backlog Bonanza Or Bubble Trouble? What's fueling both the frenzy and the fear? In mid-May, CoreWeave smashed its first earnings since IPO, reporting 420% year-over-year revenue growth and guiding well ahead of Wall Street's expectations. The cherry on top? A new $4 billion deal with OpenAI, adding to an already staggering $25.9 billion backlog. Yet, CoreWeave also posted a widened net loss of $314.6 million, and plans to burn through up to $23 billion in capex this year. That kind of aggressive scaling has drawn comparisons to high-beta tech names of the past -- some of which soared, while others flamed out. Dark Pools Add To The Drama Meanwhile, short activity remains aggressive in off-exchange venues. As of May 27, FINRA data shows a 54.6% off-exchange short volume ratio, hinting that dark pool bears are still betting big. So, is CoreWeave the next AI rocket ship, or just a hot potato in a crowded trade? With Nvidia backing it and OpenAI betting billions, bulls argue it's the real deal. But with short interest piling up and valuation stretching into uncharted territory, a short squeeze -- or a sharp reversal -- could be just around the corner. Read Next: CoreWeave Stock Rises On Government Affairs Appointment: What's Going On? Image: Shutterstock CRWVCoreWeave Inc$117.12-5.53%Stock Score Locked: Want to See it? Benzinga Rankings give you vital metrics on any stock - anytime. Reveal Full ScoreEdge RankingsMomentumNot AvailableGrowthNot AvailableQualityNot AvailableValue11.07Price TrendShortMediumLongOverviewNVDANVIDIA Corp$135.37-0.10%Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

CoreWeave (CRWV) Stock Pulls Back From All-Time High: What's Driving The Volatility? - CoreWeave (NASDAQ:CRWV)

Shares of CoreWeave Inc CRWV traded lower by 7.49% to $114.74 during Wednesday's session, pulling back from recent all-time highs despite no new company-specific news. The decline comes after recent, strong gains driven by bullish sentiment around the company's growth prospects and strategic developments. What To Know: On Tuesday, CoreWeave stock jumped following the announcement of Carl Holshouser as Vice President of Government Affairs. Holshouser, a veteran in federal policy and public affairs, was previously EVP at TechNet and held leadership roles at Visa. His appointment signaled CoreWeave's strategic push to strengthen its regulatory and public sector positioning amid increasing government influence on the AI industry. This leadership move came on the heels of an impressive earnings report and growing investor enthusiasm. This month, CoreWeave reported a staggering 420% year-over-year revenue increase in the first-quarter to $981.6 million, alongside a bullish full-year guidance of up to $5.1 billion. A strategic partnership with OpenAI and a significant stake by NVIDIA Corp further fueled the stock's momentum, pushing it to an all-time high of $116.54. Despite Wednesday's pullback, CRWV remains up 175% over the past month as investors continue to bet on the company's AI infrastructure dominance. Read Also: Nvidia Bullish Ahead Of Q1 Earnings, But Will H20 Chip Woes Dampen The Party? How To Buy CRWV Stock Besides going to a brokerage platform to purchase a share - or fractional share - of stock, you can also gain access to shares either by buying an exchange traded fund (ETF) that holds the stock itself, or by allocating yourself to a strategy in your 401(k) that would seek to acquire shares in a mutual fund or other instrument. For example, in CoreWeave's case, it is in the Information Technology sector. An ETF will likely hold shares in many liquid and large companies that help track that sector, allowing an investor to gain exposure to the trends within that segment. According to data from Benzinga Pro, CRWV has a 52-week high of $125.02 and a 52-week low of $33.52. Photo: Shutterstock CRWVCoreWeave Inc$114.72-7.46%Stock Score Locked: Edge Members Only Benzinga Rankings give you vital metrics on any stock - anytime. Unlock RankingsEdge RankingsMomentumNot AvailableGrowthNot AvailableQualityNot AvailableValue11.07Price TrendShortMediumLongOverviewMarket News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

Why CoreWeave (CRWV) Stock Hit A New All-Time High Today - CoreWeave (NASDAQ:CRWV)

CoreWeave Inc CRWV shares surged 2.43% to $118.97 Thursday morning, riding the wave of Nvidia Corp's blowout first-quarter earnings and renewed market enthusiasm for AI infrastructure. What To Know: Nvidia, a key partner and supplier of GPUs to CoreWeave's AI cloud platform, saw its stock rise nearly 6% after posting $44.1 billion in first-quarter revenue, well ahead of Wall Street's $43.2 billion forecast. Earnings reached 96 cents per share, excluding a $4.5 billion charge related to U.S. export bans on H20 chips to China. Fueled by explosive demand for AI computing, Nvidia's data center revenue jumped 73% to $39.1 billion, while its guidance for the second-quarter remained upbeat at $45 billion, despite the $8 billion projected revenue loss from the export curbs. CEO Jensen Huang highlighted surging global demand for AI systems, calling them "essential infrastructure." CoreWeave, which relies heavily on Nvidia's GPUs for its cloud services, often trades in tandem with its larger peer. Analysts expect CoreWeave to continue benefiting from rising AI spending and broader enterprise adoption. As Nvidia positions itself at the center of the AI boom, related names like CoreWeave are drawing increased investor attention. Read Also: Tesla, Block Ride Bitcoin Boom As MicroStrategy Goes All In How To Buy CRWV Stock Besides going to a brokerage platform to purchase a share - or fractional share - of stock, you can also gain access to shares either by buying an exchange traded fund (ETF) that holds the stock itself, or by allocating yourself to a strategy in your 401(k) that would seek to acquire shares in a mutual fund or other instrument. For example, in CoreWeave's case, it is in the Information Technology sector. An ETF will likely hold shares in many liquid and large companies that help track that sector, allowing an investor to gain exposure to the trends within that segment. According to data from Benzinga Pro, CRWV has a 52-week high of $130.76 and a 52-week low of $33.52. Image: Shutterstock CRWVCoreWeave Inc$118.281.83%Stock Score Locked: Want to See it? Benzinga Rankings give you vital metrics on any stock - anytime. Reveal Full ScoreEdge RankingsMomentumNot AvailableGrowthNot AvailableQualityNot AvailableValue12.23Price TrendShortMediumLongOverviewMarket News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

Why AI Stock CoreWeave Surged 21% Higher Today | The Motley Fool

Two pieces of encouraging news obscured a negative development with CoreWeave (CRWV 20.75%) stock on Tuesday. Ultimately, investors decided to latch on to the affirmative, as they drove the stock nearly 21% higher in price. That absolutely crushed the S&P 500 index's (^GSPC 2.05%) otherwise impressive 2%-plus rise. CoreWeave is a cloud infrastructure company that focuses on the market for high-end artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities. As such, it is a business partner of next-generation chipmaker Nvidia, which also owns a substantial stake in the company. On Tuesday, the Financial Times reported that a clutch of Nvidia suppliers had surmounted technical challenges that had delayed shipments of Nvidia's AI data center racks. This had negatively affected the company's production of its Blackwell AI servers; CoreWeave hosts such servers via its cloud platform. Another positive development for CoreWeave was its Tuesday announcement of a new hire. The company tapped Carl Holshouser as its vice president of government affairs. Prior to his hiring, Holshouser served in a variety of managerial positions concerning public policy, most recently as head of federal policy and government relations at tech executive association TechNet. Investors rightfully cheered the addition of a manager steeped in experience with government entities. With these developments, the market shrugged off a recommendation downgrade from an analyst. Barclays' Raimo Lenschow changed his view on CoreWeave stock to equal weight (hold, in other words) from his previous overweight (buy). He knocked his price target down to $70 per share -- from the previous $100 -- in the process. According to reports, while Lenschow expects robust growth from the company, he feels it is too richly valued at the moment. Lenschow certainly has a point, but CoreWeave's business is red-hot these days, and likely to get hotter. Yes, it's expensive, but as we all know, quality stocks can be pricey. I wouldn't be afraid of this one's level just yet.

Is CoreWeave Stock Still a Buy After Its 200% Rally? | The Motley Fool

Growth stocks have been all over the map this year. Despite bullish projections from analysts heading into 2025, President Donald Trump's global trade reset has weighed on markets: After several ups and downs, the benchmark S&P 500 is essentially flat year to date at the time of this writing. However, against that backdrop, some stocks have delivered incredible gains. CoreWeave (CRWV 20.75%), which is up 200% year to date, is a prime example. The artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure powerhouse has defied gravity amid the market's turbulence, and appears primed for even more gains in the years ahead. CoreWeave is a specialized cloud computing provider that operates GPU-accelerated data centers designed specifically for AI workloads. With more than 33 facilities across the U.S. and Europe, it provides the specific variety of computational horsepower needed to power a host of AI-related needs, from training large language models to supporting generative AI applications. Unlike traditional cloud providers that are now retrofitting existing infrastructure to meet the new demands of their customers, CoreWeave builds its data centers from the ground up for AI computing. Earlier this month, the company delivered blockbuster first-quarter results that sent Wall Street analysts scrambling to raise their price targets on the stock. Revenue rose 420% year over year to $981.6 million, crushing the consensus expectation of $853 million. The quarter's highlight was a five-year, $11.9 billion contract with OpenAI that cemented CoreWeave's status as the go-to infrastructure provider for leading AI companies. What makes CoreWeave's growth particularly compelling is its massive $25.9 billion revenue backlog, which includes $14.7 billion in remaining performance obligations. Further showcasing the company's hypergrowth, adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) surged to $606 million, nearly six times greater than in the prior-year period. With 420 megawatts (MW) powering its data centers across the U.S. and Europe, the company has the physical infrastructure to support years of double-digit percentage growth. CoreWeave's ability to secure long-term contracts with blue chip AI customers provides it with exceptional revenue visibility. This enables the company to make infrastructure investments backed by firm customer commitments, reducing execution risk. In Q1, CoreWeave added a substantial amount of contracted power, including a 260 MW expansion with Galaxy Digital. Additional partnerships, such as with Bulk Infrastructure in Europe and Flexential in Q2, underscore the company's accelerating scale. CoreWeave's competitive advantage stems from its purpose-built approach. Traditional cloud providers like Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure retrofit existing data centers for AI workloads. CoreWeave's facilities are designed specifically for GPU-intensive computing, and deliver superior performance and cost efficiency as AI models grow more complex and computationally demanding. That's a significant competitive advantage in a rapidly growing market. While CoreWeave's growth has been mind-bending, investors should still consider the significant risks it faces. The company posted a net loss of $314.6 million in Q1, widening from $129.2 million a year earlier, an increase attributable to interest expenses that rose 549% year over year to $264 million. These financing costs reflect the capital-intensive nature of building cutting-edge data centers. Management is guiding for capital expenditures of $20 billion to $23 billion in 2025 alone. To put this in perspective, CoreWeave is spending roughly five times its annual revenue on its infrastructure build-out. Customer concentration presents another risk -- Microsoft alone accounted for 62% of 2024 revenue. While the OpenAI deal will provide some diversification, CoreWeave's dependence on its few biggest clients remains a concern. Additionally, hyperscalers could leverage their massive balance sheets to compete more aggressively with it in the AI infrastructure space. Even after their eye-popping surge this year, CoreWeave shares still look like a compelling option for growth investors who can stomach volatility. Analysts project the company will turn profitable in 2026 while maintaining triple-digit percentage growth rates. The stock offers one of the purest plays available on AI infrastructure demand. For investors who believe we're still in the early innings of the AI revolution, CoreWeave stock remains a buy.

Analyst resets Nvidia-backed AI stock price target after 200% surge

With all eyes on Nvidia's (NVDA) first-quarter earnings, one under-the-radar AI stock has already gained momentum, surging 30% in the past five days. That company is CoreWeave, now Nvidia's largest holding, making up more than 78% of the AI chipmaker's disclosed portfolio. CoreWeave Inc. (CRWV) is a cloud infrastructure company specializing in GPU-accelerated computing for artificial intelligence and machine learning workloads. Founded in 2017, the company transitioned from cryptocurrency mining to providing AI-focused cloud services. Now, the company is quietly delivering explosive growth and winning support from Nvidia and OpenAI just weeks after its IPO. On March 28, CoreWeave launched its initial public offering, pricing shares at $40 each, below its anticipated range of $47 to $55. Still, the IPO raised $1.5 billion, making it one of the largest AI-related listings since 2021. Since then, the stock is up more than 200%. CoreWeave posts 420% revenue growth CoreWeave's data centers are equipped with Nvidia GPUs, and Nvidia holds approximately a 7% stake in the company. The chip giant has invested in CoreWeave since April 2023, before it went public. In the first quarter of this year, Nvidia bought 24,182,460 shares following the IPO, according to WhaleWisdom data based on 13F filings. Related: Analysts issue rare warning on Nvidia stock before key earnings On May 14, CoreWeave posted its first earnings since going public, with a 420% year-over-year revenue increase to $981.6 million for the first quarter. This growth might remind investors of Nvidia's explosive performance during the AI boom of 2023 and 2024. "Demand for our platform is robust and accelerating as AI leaders seek the highly performant AI cloud infrastructure required for the most advanced applications," Chief Executive Michael Intrator said in a statement. CoreWeave's net loss for the quarter widened to $314.6 million from $129.2 million a year earlier, partly due to $177 million in stock-based compensation tied to the IPO. The company expects revenue of $4.9 billion to $5.1 billion in 2025, up 363% year-over-year and above Wall Street estimates. It also projects capital expenditures of $20 billion to $23 billion for the year. In the first quarter, OpenAI signed a five-year deal with CoreWeave worth up to $11.9 billion. After the quarter ended, the two companies signed an additional $4 billion contract, Intrator told CNBC. Related: Billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller quintuples stake in top semiconductor stock Nvidia's investment portfolio includes Arm Holdings (ARM) , Applied Digital (APLD) , Recursion Pharmaceuticals (RXRX) , Yandex (YNDX) , and WeRide (WRD) . Nvidia's backing could send a stock soaring, but it doesn't always last. In early 2024, Nvidia disclosed a stake in SoundHound AI (SOUN) , sending shares soaring 567% that year. But by February 2025, Nvidia revealed it had sold out completely. SoundHound shares have fallen 46% year to date. Barclays downgrades CoreWeave stock, lifts price target Barclays analyst Raimo Lenschow downgraded CoreWeave to equal weight from overweight, but raised the price target to $100, up from $70, thefly.com reported. Barclays continues to like the role Coreweave is playing in the new generative AI world. However, after a sharp rally since the IPO, the analyst is concerned about the stock's current valuation, saying it "could be stretched to move higher off fundamentals in the near term." More Nvidia: The "issue investors now face with this next-gen high growth tech asset is to ascribe an appropriate valuation to the name, especially with there being no close comparable peer group that can be used," the analyst said in a research note. CoreWeave stock traded at around $117.5 on May 28, meaning Barclays' $100 price target sits below current levels. Meanwhile, data from TipRanks shows an average target of $47.42, implying a potential 60% downside risk. Related: Veteran fund manager unveils eye-popping S&P 500 forecast