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CoreWeave, Inc. is an American cloud computing company that rents computing power to AI developers and large technology companies. It operates data centers equipped with NVIDIAgraphics processing units (GPUs), which are chips used to train and run artificial intelligence models. CoreWeave doesnât build AI models or design chips itself. Its headquarters are in Livingston, New Jersey, and its shares began trading on the Nasdaq under the symbol CRWV in March 2025.
How did CoreWeave shift from cryptocurrency mining to cloud computing?
CoreWeave began in 2017 as Atlantic Crypto, a company that mined Ethereum with large numbers of graphics processing units (GPUs). When cryptocurrency prices fell in 2018, many mining companies sold equipment or closed. CoreWeave expanded instead, buying GPUs from struggling crypto miners at discounted prices and renting out extra computing power to other businesses. In 2019, it changed its name to CoreWeave as it moved away from cryptocurrency mining and toward cloud computing services using NVIDIA chips.
How did the AI boom help CoreWeave grow?
CoreWeave benefited from rising demand for AI computing power after OpenAI released ChatGPT in late 2022 and brought generative AI to a wide audience. Its large inventory of graphics processing units (GPUs) and relationship with NVIDIA helped it serve this demand. The company attracted customers including Microsoft, OpenAI, Meta Platforms, and NVIDIA. Its data center operations grew from three centers with more than 17,000 GPUs at the start of 2023 to dozens of data centers holding hundreds of thousands of GPUs by the end of 2024.
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CoreWeave is one of the largest providers of AI computing infrastructure.
CoreWeave, Inc., is an American cloud computing company that operates data centers equipped with NVIDIA (NVDA) graphics processing units (GPUs), computer chips widely used to train and run artificial intelligence models. Rather than building AI models or designing chips itself, CoreWeave rents computing power to AI developers and large technology companies. It competes in part with cloud computing providers such as Amazon.com (AMZN), Microsoft (MSFT), Google, and Oracle (ORCL).
Headquartered in Livingston, New Jersey, the company had about 2,200 employees as of the end of 2025. Shares of the company began trading on the Nasdaq in March 2025 under the ticker symbol CRWV.
CoreWeaveâs crypto roots
CoreWeave was founded in 2017 by Michael Intrator, Brannin McBee, and Brian Venturo, former commodities traders who initially focused on cryptocurrency mining. The company began under the name Atlantic Crypto and mined Ethereum using large numbers of GPUs, the same chips later used extensively in AI models.
When cryptocurrency prices fell in 2018, many mining companies sold off equipment or shut down operations. CoreWeave instead expanded, buying GPUs from distressed crypto miners at discounted prices and renting excess computing power to other businesses. The company was renamed CoreWeave in 2019 as it shifted toward cloud computing services using NVIDIA chips and away from cryptocurrency mining.
How the AI boom transformed CoreWeave
AI terms to know
GPU: A specialized computer chip used to train and run AI models.
Generative AI: AI systems that create text, images, audio, or other content.
Large language model (LLM): An AI model trained on massive amounts of text to generate humanlike responses.
Cloud computing: Renting computing power and software over the Internet instead of running on local computers.
CoreWeaveâs large inventory of GPUs and its relationship with NVIDIA helped it benefit from the surge in demand for AI computing power following the release of OpenAIâs ChatGPT artificial intelligence chatbot in late 2022, which brought generative AI to a mass audience. As it grew, CoreWeave attracted customers that included Microsoft, OpenAI, Meta Platforms (META), and NVIDIA.
It financed much of that expansion through borrowing, making CoreWeave both a symbol of the AI boom and a closely watched example of the risks associated with the industryâs heavy spending.
CoreWeaveâs leveraged expansion
CoreWeave expanded its data center capacity as demand for AI computing power increased. At the beginning of 2023, the company operated three data centers with more than 17,000 GPUs. By the end of 2024, it had expanded to dozens of data centers containing hundreds of thousands of GPUs in the United States and Europe.
The company financed much of that growth through borrowing. By the end of 2024, CoreWeave had accumulated nearly $13 billion in debt, in addition to raising money from investors that included NVIDIA, which invested $100 million in the company in 2023.
Some of CoreWeaveâs loans were backed by its inventory of NVIDIA GPUs, an unusual financing structure for computer hardware. The arrangement drew attention because computer chips can lose value quickly as newer technology becomes available. Analysts also questioned whether long-term demand for AI computing power would remain high enough to justify the companyâs expansion.
A bellwether IPO and investor concerns
CoreWeave became a publicly traded company in March 2025. Investors closely watched the initial public offering (IPO) because it was one of the first major stock market debuts tied directly to the growth of the AI infrastructure industry.
Before the IPO, CoreWeave signed a five-year contract with OpenAI valued at nearly $12 billion. Even so, the company reduced both the expected price of its shares and the amount of money it planned to raise after investors expressed concerns about its debt levels, spending requirements, and path to profitability. Some analysts also focused on CoreWeaveâs dependence on a small number of customers.
Microsoft accounted for 67% of the companyâs revenue in 2025, up from 62% in 2024. At the same time, the software giant was spending heavily on its own AI infrastructure, raising questions about how long it would continue relying on outside providers such as CoreWeave.
CoreWeaveâs IPO took place during a broader period of uncertainty about technology stocks and AI-related investments. Some investors viewed the company as an example of the enormous potential of AI infrastructure, while others questioned whether demand for AI computing power would remain strong enough to justify the industryâs heavy spending on data centers and advanced chips.
Beyond the IPO
Despite concerns about its IPO, CoreWeave continued expanding in 2025 and 2026. It signed additional multibillion-dollar agreements with major technology companies, including a $21 billion expansion agreement with Meta, while continuing to build new data centers in the U.S. and Europe.
CoreWeave also expanded through acquisitions aimed at strengthening its AI and cloud computing operations. At the same time, the company continued taking on debt to finance its growth. As of June 30, 2026, it had $35.6 billion in total debt.
The company also made major investments in infrastructure needed to meet the demand for AI computing power. It spent $14.1 billion on property and equipment in the first half of the year, more than three times its spending in the same period of 2025. Its strategy illustrates a broader question facing the AI industry: whether demand for computing power will ultimately justify the enormous investment required to build and operate the infrastructure needed to provide it.
