CoreWeave reported third-quarter revenue of $3.661 billion, up 168% from a year earlier, as demand for AI computing kept climbing. The AI cloud provider also raised its full-year revenue guidance to between $13.0 billion and $13.3 billion and said its revenue backlog stood at about $132.5 billion. But the same quarter carried a $709 million net loss, driven by $846 million of net interest expense, and its shares gave back part of their gains after the report.
The quarter in numbers
Revenue rose from $1.365 billion a year earlier and by more than $1 billion from the second quarter, chief executive Michael Intrator said. Operating income reached $207 million, a 6% margin, against $52 million a year earlier. Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation came in at $2.256 billion, a 62% margin, while adjusted operating income was $379 million.
The loss widened because borrowing costs overwhelmed the operating gain. Net interest expense climbed to $846 million from $310 million a year earlier, and depreciation and amortisation rose to $1.889 billion from $630 million. The interest bill alone now runs at more than four times the operating profit.
CoreWeave also lifted its 2026 capital spending plan to between $37 billion and $39 billion and expects interest of $1.05 billion to $1.15 billion in the fourth quarter. The backlog is the number investors watch most: it stood at about $132.5 billion at the end of September, counting contracts not yet recognised as revenue.
The company also pointed to about $9 billion of customer prepayments and deposits expected in the next three months, which it says gives it room to keep building. It raised about $4.2 billion through convertible notes in the quarter and closed a $2.6 billion financing facility for shorter customer contracts.
Our Read
The quarter settles one argument and sharpens another. Demand is real: revenue more than doubled in a year, the backlog keeps growing, and customers from OpenAI to Canva are signing up. But the model runs on borrowed money, and the interest bill now eats more than four times the operating profit the business makes.
That is why the market reaction split in two. Shares closed up 24.71% on Wednesday after the report, their best day since April, according to CNBC, then fell more than 6% after hours as turmoil at Nvidia rattled AI stocks. The two moves together say investors believe the demand and doubt the financing in the same breath.
Microsoft is already walking away from some AI capacity deals, and the scrutiny on how this buildout is funded is only growing. The question is no longer whether AI demand exists, but which companies can afford to serve it, and for how long their lenders will keep paying.
Why It Matters
CoreWeave is the purest test of the AI infrastructure boom. It rents out Nvidia-powered computing, and its growth depends on lenders believing the backlog will turn into cash. If borrowing costs stay this high, the company must keep raising money or slow the buildout, and either choice would ripple through the suppliers and customers that depend on its capacity.
The guidance raise shows management is choosing to keep building. It now expects annualised run-rate revenue of $20 billion to $21 billion by the end of the year, up from $18.5 billion to $19.5 billion before. Whether that pace survives the interest bill is the question the next two quarters must answer.
Not every data-centre deal is surviving this repricing, and CoreWeave’s next test is proving its backlog is worth the debt behind it. The company’s guidance raise is a bet that demand will keep outrunning its borrowing costs. If lenders lose faith, the buildout slows and the backlog means little.
Background
CoreWeave began as a crypto-mining operation and reinvented itself as an AI cloud provider, listing on the Nasdaq in March 2025. Its shares have swung violently since then, including a 10% fall in last week’s chip-led rout. The company added more than 200 megawatts of active power in the quarter, taking its total past 1.7 gigawatts.
Source: CoreWeave’s third-quarter results and Reuters’ market report.
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