CoreWeave revenue surges, but losses and spending plans worry investors

CoreWeave posted explosive first-quarter revenue growth, but the market fixated on a widening loss, heavier spending plans and a second-quarter forecast that pointed to slower momentum than investors wanted.

The AI infrastructure company reported revenue of $2.078 billion, more than double the $981.8 million it generated a year earlier and above Wall Street’s $1.97 billion estimate. Even so, adjusted loss per share came in at $1.12, deeper than expected, and net loss widened to $740 million from $315 million a year ago. Shares fell after the update as investors weighed whether CoreWeave’s rapid growth is building the backbone of the AI economy or pushing ahead of the business economics that support it.

The company said it expects second-quarter revenue of $2.45 billion to $2.6 billion, a midpoint below analyst expectations, while keeping full-year revenue guidance at $12 billion to $13 billion. At the same time, CoreWeave raised the lower end of its 2026 capital spending forecast to $31 billion from $30 billion, leaving the top end at $35 billion. The company said the extra spending reflects the demands of expanding data centers, power and GPU capacity for customers building and running large AI models.

CoreWeave ended the quarter with more than 3.5 gigawatts of contracted power and $99.4 billion in revenue backlog, up sharply from $66.8 billion at the end of 2025. Management said the company had surpassed 1 gigawatt of active power and was on track for more than 8 gigawatts by 2030. It also said it had reached hyperscale and now had 10 customers each committed to at least $1 billion of spending, underscoring the depth of demand behind the expansion.

The company broadened its customer base with new agreements tied to Meta Platforms, including a roughly $21 billion commitment signed in March, and a multi-year deal with Anthropic to support Claude-family models. CoreWeave also expanded relationships with Cohere, Jane Street and Mistral, and added customers including Adaption Labs, Advaita Bio, Hudson River Trading, Perplexity and World Labs.

Still, the balance sheet remains a concern. CoreWeave ended the quarter with almost $25 billion in debt, and technology and infrastructure costs jumped 127% to $1.27 billion. Sales and marketing expenses rose more than sixfold to $69 million. Nvidia bought another $2 billion of CoreWeave shares during the quarter, a sign of confidence from a key supplier, but the company’s heavy borrowing and capital intensity continue to hang over the stock.

CoreWeave went public on March 28, 2025, in a Nasdaq debut valued at about $23 billion. It reported $5.13 billion in fiscal 2025 revenue, and the latest quarter showed how quickly the business is scaling. The harder question for investors is whether the company can keep turning that demand into durable profits before the cost of expansion outruns it.