The New Jersey-based company acquires computing power from Nvidia and, in partnership with data center operators, leases it to AI giants - most recently Meta in a $21 billion mega-deal - who thus conveniently outsource their capital expenditure requirements.
Optimists argue that it is a win-win arrangement - akin to a logistics firm leasing its fleet or a hotel group its buildings. Cynics, however, point out that CoreWeave is left holding the bag, tasked with acquiring tech assets at bubble-era prices that are prone to rapid depreciation.
Nevertheless, the company is riding the wave. In 2022, its revenue was a mere $16m. By 2025, it had surpassed $5bn, and this figure is expected to double again in both 2026 and 2027. To say the expansion has been meteoric would be an understatement, occurring entirely in the wake of chipmaker Nvidia.
Over the last four years, CoreWeave has had to invest $22bn. To fund this, the company raised $20bn in debt and issued $3bn in common and preferred shares. The gap is set to widen: for 2026, analysts foresee capital expenditures tripling compared to 2025, rising from $10bn to $30bn.
While spectacular, this growth is accompanied by a strained financial structure, as CoreWeave's income statement remains deeply in the red. Net debt already exceeds ten times EBITDA, and in 2025, interest expenses accounted for more than a fifth of total revenue.
In January, to address the urgency, Nvidia - already CoreWeave's second-largest shareholder behind hedge fund Magnetar Capital Partners - invested $2bn in a new capital increase. Naturally, the transaction fueled rumors of a conflict of interest, as it is rarely considered sound practice for a supplier to control its distributor.
While valuing CoreWeave - whose business relies on a hybrid "neocloud" model - remains impossible given the numerous unknowns and shifting dynamics, members of the management team seem to have a clear view of what comes next, as they have been aggressively offloading their own holdings in the company.
