CoreWeave (NASDAQ:CRWV) shares jumped more than 15% on Tradegate on Tuesday after the cloud infrastructure provider delivered record revenue for a fifth consecutive quarter, exceeded Wall Street expectations and raised its outlook as demand for artificial intelligence computing capacity remained strong.
CoreWeave operates a specialised cloud platform built around large volumes of Nvidia’s advanced graphics processing units. The company installs the chips in data centres and leases the resulting computing capacity to businesses developing and operating AI models, with Microsoft and OpenAI among its largest customers.
Second-quarter revenue reached $2.58 billion, exceeding the $2.55 billion consensus estimate from analysts surveyed by FactSet. CoreWeave reported an adjusted loss of $1.03 per share, narrower than the $1.20 loss expected by analysts.
CoreWeave backlog climbs to $104 billion
The company’s sales backlog increased to $104 billion, almost twice the size of the order book reported in November, highlighting continued demand for new AI infrastructure.
CoreWeave also revealed that it had secured $25 billion in net new customer commitments early in the current quarter. Those contracts were not included in Tuesday’s reported results.
Rapid expansion continued to require substantial investment, with capital expenditure reaching $9.4 billion during the second quarter, up from $6.8 billion in the previous three-month period.
Third-quarter and full-year outlook raised
CoreWeave forecast third-quarter revenue of between $3.45 billion and $3.60 billion, alongside adjusted operating income of $200 million to $260 million.
Bernstein analysts said the outlook implies “continued sequential margin expansion and low-teens adjusted operating margin by Q4.”
For the full year, CoreWeave raised its revenue forecast to between $12.4 billion and $13.2 billion, compared with its previous range of $12 billion to $13 billion.
Adjusted operating income guidance was increased to between $960 million and $1.15 billion, while management lifted its target for annualised run-rate revenue at the end of 2026 to between $18.5 billion and $19.5 billion.
Managed inference emerges as another growth driver
CoreWeave also highlighted managed inference as an increasingly important source of future growth.
Booked annual recurring revenue from the business has risen from approximately $1 million when the service launched to more than $100 million within several months. Management expects managed-inference ARR to reach at least $250 million by the end of 2026.
The company’s rapid data-centre expansion means spending is also increasing. Full-year capital expenditure guidance was raised to between $35 billion and $39 billion from the previous forecast of $31 billion to $35 billion.
“This was the strongest print CRWV has delivered,” Bernstein analysts said in a note. However, “while guidance went up on every line: revenue, AOI, exit ARR, active power… capex went up higher than all of them,” the analysts added.
Bernstein remains cautious despite strong quarter
Despite the stronger results and upgraded outlook, Bernstein maintained its cautious longer-term view of CoreWeave.
“We’re maintaining our Underperform on the long-term fundamentals of this company and have not changed our view that the growth trajectory could shift hard and fast,” they wrote.
CoreWeave executives told analysts that new data-centre capacity was being brought online faster than originally anticipated. The company added 500 megawatts of computing power during the quarter as it continued expanding its AI infrastructure footprint.
Separately, CoreWeave said it had secured a new $2.6 billion loan facility that will help finance additional chip purchases and further investment in AI infrastructure.
CoreWeave stock price
