CoreWeave was established to build new cloud infrastructure required by the AI era, aiming for a comprehensive redesign from infrastructure and software to financial structures.

Following strategic cooperation with Nvidia and long-term contracts with major customers such as Microsoft, Meta, and Jane Street, the company has recorded rapid growth.

According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on the 21st (local time), as recent earnings and guidance fell short of investor expectations, the stock price has plummeted approximately 58% from its peak in June 2025.

Amid the global AI infrastructure boom, concerns about excessive capital expenditure and debt burden are weighing on highly valued tech stocks, including CoreWeave.

▲ Founding Background and Evolution

CEO Michael Intrater, who worked as a trader in the energy and environment markets for over 20 years, anticipated the arrival of the AI era and co-founded Atlantic Crypto, the predecessor to CoreWeave, in 2017.

When the cryptocurrency market weakened in 2018, he identified an opportunity to convert Nvidia GPUs for AI model training and operation, and relaunched as CoreWeave in 2019.

Following its listing in March 2025, the company strengthened its AI-native cloud position by receiving additional investment from Nvidia (2 billion dollars in January 2026).

▲ 'AI-Native' Rather Than 'Neocloud'

CoreWeave emphasized that it is not simply a GPU rental service provider, but rather provides an end-to-end stack optimized for AI workloads.

The company has an architecture encompassing analytics and observation tools, training systems for researchers, application execution software, and liquid cooling for the latest GPUs (Grace Blackwell and Vera Rubin).

The core of CoreWeave's positioning is that customers want partnership for production-grade AI operations rather than GPU rentals.

CoreWeave [Provided by Yonhapnews]

▲ Temporary Accounting Burden, Expecting Operating Leverage

CoreWeave applies an accounting policy that recognizes depreciation and operating expenses from the time equipment is deployed while gradually operating large-scale infrastructure.

This resulted in temporary accounting impacts where costs are recognized before revenue is generated, with depreciation and interest expenses rising to 81% of quarterly revenue.

However, revenue begins to be generated within an average of six weeks after assets become operational, and as time passes, depreciation expenses are distributed across an expanded revenue base, improving operating margins.

▲ 30 Billion Dollars in Debt, Backed by Contract-Based Cash Flow

CoreWeave has raised approximately 30 billion dollars in total debt for the 49 data centers currently in operation and future contracted expansion investments.

The loans are structured based on cash flow from customer contracts, and customers must pay for contracted resources regardless of whether they are used.

According to MUFG Securities, this is a precedent for investment-grade loans using both HPC assets and customer contracts as collateral, with debt repayment proceeding gradually in line with long-term contract periods.

▲ Software and Operations Capabilities as the Deciding Factor Amid Intensifying Competition

The competitive landscape is becoming more intense as new neocloud companies such as Nebuius, Lambda, and Ensecal accelerate their market entry.

CEO Intrater explained that while computing accessibility lowers initial barriers to entry, actual success depends on software, security, and operational expertise.

CoreWeave possesses differentiated capabilities in this regard, and he emphasized that the trend of expanding customers beyond large tech companies to the corporate sector, including finance, is growing.

▲ Capital Efficiency, Rediscovering Debt

Intrater argued that the technology industry must increase the utilization of debt even after IPO, emphasizing the importance of capital efficiency.

Debt is a means to efficiently raise funds necessary for large-scale infrastructure construction while preventing equity dilution, and he explained that it has been used in a balanced manner in historically large projects such as railways, roads, and schools.

The construction of AI infrastructure likewise requires mobilization of capital on an unprecedented scale, requiring the utilization of both debt and equity, he emphasized.

▲ "The World Has Changed Forever"

While the practical application of AI may take time for social acceptance like railways or automobiles, CEO Intrater asserted that change has already begun.

He was confident that AI represents a structural transformation spanning one generation, or perhaps multiple generations, with CoreWeave at the center of it.

Despite short-term volatility, he maintains confidence in long-term vision and execution capability, preparing for the next chapter of AI-native cloud.

CEO Intrater emphasized that "the world has changed forever," assessing current investments and debt burdens as the cost of capturing the next-generation computing market.