CoreWeave just proved that the AI infrastructure boom still has plenty of fuel left, even as Wall Street worries about a slowdown.
The cloud computing company, which rents out powerful chips to AI developers, posted quarterly revenue of $2.58 billion. That beat the $2.56 billion analysts were looking for, and it's up 112% from the same time last year.
Shares rose 14% in extended trading. The stock is now up 26% so far in 2025, more than double the S&P 500's nearly 13% gain.
CoreWeave is still losing money. The net loss widened to $626 million, up from $290 million a year earlier, which works out to 60 cents per share. But investors care more about the adjusted loss per share, which strips out one-time costs. That came in at $1.03, better than the $1.20 loss analysts expected.
The bigger story is what's coming down the pipeline. CoreWeave's revenue backlog, the total value of contracted future work, hit $104 billion. That number excludes more than $25 billion in new commitments customers made during the third quarter.
CEO Mike Intrator said the company's current outlook is solid despite growing regulatory pushback in some areas.
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"When we talk through the numbers with you guys, we're basing our progress on where we are today and what we have guided here," Intrator told analysts during a conference call. "None of those numbers will be impacted by the regulatory pushback as of today."
The demand is coming from some of the biggest names in tech. Along with Meta's additional $21 billion commitment, CoreWeave unveiled a long-term deal with Anthropic. Trading firm Jane Street made a $6 billion commitment.
CoreWeave is 8 years old and went public on Nasdaq in March 2025. It's not profitable yet, and it carries $35 billion in debt. But it is pouring money into expansion, targeting capital expenditures of $35 billion to $39 billion per year, up from the previous forecast of $31 billion to $35 billion.
The company expects to have over 1.85 gigawatts of active power capacity by the end of the year, compared with 1.5 gigawatts currently. That's a lot of electricity, all going toward running AI data centers.
For the third quarter, CoreWeave guided to revenue between $3.4 billion and $3.6 billion, implying 158% growth at the midpoint. Analysts were expecting $3.43 billion.
The road ahead isn't completely smooth. Competition is heating up from unexpected places. SpaceX has begun offering spare computing power to outside customers, while Meta is said to have explored starting its own cloud unit. Rival Nebius rose 5% in extended trading, suggesting investors see strength across the sector.
CFO Nitin Agrawal says the company isn't worried. "Even with this increased competition, we're seeing demand, pricing and margin all expanding, which is a signal for the growth in the CoreWeave product, as well as our growth overall in an already massive TAM that exists," he said.
There's also the regulatory question. New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed an executive order in July that paused approvals for new large data-center projects. Intrator acknowledged in an interview with CNBC that some regions are becoming harder to work with.
"There is no question that when parts of the U.S. become unwilling to even engage in those conversations, that it becomes more challenging," he said.
For 2026, CoreWeave expects adjusted operating income of $960 million to $1.15 billion on revenue of $12.4 billion to $13.2 billion. That's a step up from the May forecast of $900 million to $1.1 billion in operating income on revenue of $12 billion to $13 billion. Analysts were expecting $12.63 billion in revenue.
The bottom line: CoreWeave is growing fast, and its customers keep signing bigger deals. The company says pricing and margins for its newest chips, the Blackwell and Vera Rubin, are at record highs, and it's passing along higher component costs to customers.
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