CRWV Shares Pop 138% in a Year: Should Investors Hold or Lock in Gains?

CoreWeave, Inc. CRWV has become a standout performer amid the ongoing AI infrastructure boom. Over the past year, its shares have climbed 137.8% against the Zacks Internet-Software Market’s fall of 18.3%. The stock has outperformed the Zacks Computer & Technology sector and the S&P 500 Composite’s growth of 22.7% and 17%. 

The stock has also outperformed the tech giant Microsoft MSFT, which fell 1.2% during the period, while Nebius Group N.V. NBIS, another emerging AI infrastructure player and CRWV’s tough rival, has soared 125.4%. Microsoft designs and sells PCs, tablets, gaming consoles and other intelligent devices. Through Azure, it delivers cloud-based software, services and platforms. Like CRWV, Nebius focuses on providing GPU-powered AI cloud infrastructure and computing capacity to developers and enterprises, competing in the fast-growing AI infrastructure market.

CRWV currently trades at $95.15, well beneath its 52-week high of $187. Below, we explore the multiple forces driving CoreWeave’s ascent, including demand for specialized AI infrastructure, strategic partnerships and investments, technological advantages, strong long-term contracts and broader macro trends.

CRWV Riding the AI Compute Boom

CoreWeave’s rapid growth stems from its strong positioning in the generative AI boom, as enterprises accelerate AI adoption as a strategic priority. Seen as a key enabler of both training and inference workloads, the company is expanding capacity and enhancing its services, fueling solid momentum amid supply constraints and stronger-than-expected sales. Recently, it rolled out CoreWeave ARENA (AI-Ready Native Applications), a new evaluation environment designed to replicate real-world, production-scale AI performance. Early customers using ARENA are already seeing meaningful gains, with more than 2× faster performance, roughly 30% lower costs and up to 10× faster training versus prior or competing cloud setups.

A major driver behind CoreWeave’s growth has been its ability to secure multi-billion-dollar contracts with leading AI companies. In 2025, the company expanded its partnership with OpenAI to support next-generation AI model training under a deal worth up to $6.5 billion, lifting total OpenAI contracts to roughly $22.4 billion following earlier agreements in March and May 2025. In October, it secured another major cloud capacity deal with Meta Platforms valued at up to $14.2 billion through 2031, with expansion options into 2032. These long-term agreements provide strong revenue visibility and a predictable growth pipeline.

One of the most influential factors in CoreWeave’s surge is its relationship with NVIDIA Corporation NVDA, the dominant manufacturer of GPUs used in AI computing. In January 2026, NVDA invested $2 billion into CoreWeave, nearly doubling its stake, to expand data centers aimed at 5 gigawatts of capacity by 2030, reflecting confidence in AI demand and CoreWeave’s role in meeting it. To strengthen its AI infrastructure footprint, CRWV announced plans to integrate NVIDIA’s Rubin technology into its AI cloud platform. As one of the first cloud providers expected to deploy Rubin in the second half of 2026, the company is positioning itself at the forefront of agentic AI, advanced reasoning models and large-scale inference workloads.

CoreWeave is aggressively scaling its data center network, deploying hundreds of thousands of GPUs across facilities in the United States and Europe. It has added significant power capacity and secured gigawatts of future capacity, with more than 1 GW yet to come online, supporting rising AI demand and reducing supply risks. New compute deals have further diversified its customer base, reinforcing growth prospects.

In addition to organic expansion, CoreWeave is pursuing strategic acquisitions. Its planned purchase of Monolith AI aims to strengthen its AI platform and accelerate innovation, building on earlier acquisitions of OpenPipe and Weights & Biases to enhance end-to-end AI capabilities. However, its proposed $9 billion acquisition of Core Scientific was terminated after stakeholder opposition.

Risks & Challenges to Derail CRWV’s Growth Engine

It’s important to balance the growth narrative with awareness of risks that could influence CoreWeave’s trajectory. The company operates with significant debt to fund expansion, which might weigh on profitability if demand slows. Leverage remains a key concern, with 2025 interest expense projected at $1.21–$1.25 billion as debt rises to fund demand-driven CapEx. While lower funding costs provide some relief, the interest burden remains heavy.

Capital intensity also stays elevated, with 2025 CapEx now guided at $12–$14 billion, reflecting spending deferrals rather than true savings, as much of the outlay has shifted from late 2025 into early 2026, prolonging near-term cash flow pressure. Looking ahead, risks are set to increase as management expects 2026 CapEx to more than double from 2025 levels, significantly raising capital demands. While these investments may bolster CoreWeave’s competitive position, they also amplify concerns around execution risk, balance sheet strain and the sustainability of its hypergrowth strategy.

Despite robust demand, CoreWeave faces supply-chain constraints as AI cloud demand exceeds available capacity. Delays in powered-shell deliveries are expected to pressure fourth-quarter results, leading management to lower its 2025 guidance. The company now projects revenue of $5.05–$5.15 billion (down from $5.15–$5.35 billion) and adjusted operating income of $690–$720 million, reduced from the earlier $800–$830 million forecast.

Heavy dependency on a few major customers exposes CoreWeave to concentration risk. Also, competition from hyperscale cloud providers investing more in GPU and AI hardware could pressure margins or capacity availability.

Estimate Revision Trend & Key Valuations for CRWV

CRWV’s estimates revisions are on a downward trajectory currently. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for its earnings for 2025 has been revised south 2.3% over the past 60 days.

In terms of Price/Book, CRWV’s shares are trading at 9.48X, higher than the Internet Software industry’s 5.36X.

Investment Verdict: Hold CRWV Stock for Now

CoreWeave’s surge over the past year reflects a culmination of structural demand for AI infrastructure, strategic contracts with leading AI developers, strong backing from NVIDIA, performance-oriented technology and market dynamics that reward future growth potential. While volatility and execution risk remain realities of its business model, the company stands at the forefront of the next phase of the AI revolution, where compute power defines competitive advantage.

With a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), CRWV appears to be treading in the middle of the road, and new investors could be better off if they trade with caution. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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