CoreWeave Stock Soars Nearly 20% After Blowout Third Quarter, $132.5 Billion Backlog Revives the AI Trade

CoreWeave shares jumped nearly 20% on Wednesday after the artificial intelligence cloud provider reported third-quarter results that beat Wall Street estimates and raised its full-year outlook. The results eased fears of a slowdown in AI infrastructure spending that had hammered the stock in recent weeks.

The stock rose $9.68, or 19.85%, to $58.41 in morning trading. Volume reached about 52.4 million shares, above its three-month average of roughly 42.3 million. The rally gave the company a market value of about $31.6 billion.

CoreWeave reported third-quarter revenue of $3.66 billion, up 168% from $1.37 billion a year earlier. Analysts had expected about $3.54 billion. The company posted a net loss of $709 million, or $1.27 per share, compared with a loss of $110 million, or 22 cents per share, a year earlier. Analysts had forecast a loss of $1.55 per share.

Adjusted operating income reached $379 million, well above the company's own guidance range of $200 million to $260 million and nearly triple the second-quarter figure. Adjusted EBITDA was $2.3 billion, a margin of 62%.

The company's revenue backlog grew to $132.5 billion.

Chief Executive Michael Intrator called it "a breakout quarter." He said adjusted operating margins reached double digits a full quarter ahead of plan.

CoreWeave raised its 2026 revenue guidance to $13.0 billion to $13.3 billion, up from a prior range of $12 billion to $13 billion. It lifted its adjusted operating income outlook to $1.275 billion to $1.375 billion, a 26% increase at the midpoint. The company also said it expects to exit the year with annualized revenue of $20 billion to $21 billion.

CoreWeave added more than 200 megawatts of active power during the quarter, bringing its total above 1.7 gigawatts. On the earnings call, executives said the company raised prices across its products by 25% in July and by another 10% later in the quarter, a sign of strong demand for computing capacity.

Investors also welcomed comments on financing. CoreWeave said it does not plan to tap the unsecured debt market to fund growth at current yields. Concern about the company's borrowing has weighed on the stock, and it carries about $46.9 billion in debt.

The results came as a relief for investors. CoreWeave closed at $48.73 on Tuesday, and the stock had fallen about 42% over the past month as worries grew about slowing AI investment, rising interest rates and the heavy debt loads of so-called neocloud companies. Even after Wednesday's jump, the shares are down about 43% over the past 52 weeks.

Not everyone was convinced. Short seller Jim Chanos questioned the economics of CoreWeave's growth. He said on X that the company's annualized revenue per average active megawatt fell year over year to $9.2 million. He argued that the company's pre-tax return on invested capital is only 2% to 3%.

CoreWeave's results rippled across the market. Shares of rival AI cloud providers Nebius, Applied Digital and IREN rose. Memory and storage makers including Sandisk, Micron and Seagate also gained, as did Nvidia, which supplies most of CoreWeave's chips. The rally spread to Asia, where South Korea's KOSPI rose 2.6% on gains in chipmakers.

CoreWeave has said it is targeting profitability in 2028.