CoreWeave Signals Sunny Skies for AI Infrastructure

CoreWeave did a double-double, and no, that’s not a burger order. The AI-cloud provider doubled its revenue and doubled its cash burn in the second quarter. Its stock popped nearly 20% Wednesday after executives shared quarterly results, with investors hoping the company’s outpouring of cash will fuel further demand. 

After CoreWeave’s revenue rose 112% to $2.6 billion in the most recent three-month reporting period, the company juiced its sales outlook for the year to as much as $13.2 billion. CoreWeave expects to bring in as much as $3.6 billion next quarter, rising from both demand and 25% price hikes it pushed through last month. CoreWeave isn’t the only cause for AI optimism this week either, with infrastructure companies including Lumentum and Super Micro Computer also sharing promising results. 

Partly Neocloudy With Scattered Storms

CoreWeave is the leading “neocloud,” or AI-cloud provider, and one of the few companies of its kind that’s publicly traded. Its earnings give insight into AI more broadly, since using its services directly indicates expected AI usage. CoreWeave sells advanced computing capacity to customers including OpenAI, Meta and Microsoft, but to meet demand, CoreWeave is burning cash:

• CoreWeave lifted its expected annual capital expenditures yesterday to as much as $39 billion, as it takes on debt to pay for the advanced chips and data centers needed to expand its services. Interest on its debt in the second quarter hit $640 million. 
• Slowing down spending may not feel like an option when rivals are nipping at CoreWeave’s heels. Neocloud rival Nebius reported Wednesday its cloud revenue jumped more than 500% in the second quarter to $575 million.

Breaking the Wheel: Much of the concern about cash being poured into AI is that it’s going around in a waterwheel of different parts of the AI supply chain (for instance: CoreWeave buys chips from Nvidia, which has invested billions in CoreWeave). On the flipside, if AI demand keeps growing, CoreWeave and its peers are building the infrastructure to meet it. AI companies are also looking beyond each other for investments, with Nvidia inking a $500 billion batch of deals with Wall Street biggies including BlackRock, Blackstone and Goldman Sachs.