CoreWeave Stock Falls 10% After Light Q2 Guidance and Higher Spending Forecast

CoreWeave shares tumbled as much as 10% in extended trading Thursday after the AI infrastructure company posted lighter-than-expected second-quarter revenue guidance and raised the low end of its 2026 capital expenditure forecast, even as first-quarter revenue surpassed analyst estimates.

The company reported Q1 revenue of $2.08 billion, topping the LSEG consensus of $1.97 billion. Revenue more than doubled year over year from $981.8 million in the same quarter a year earlier. Despite the beat, a net loss widened to $740 million, compared with $315 million — or $1.49 per share — in the year-ago period. Adjusted loss per share came in at $1.12, worse than the 90-cent loss analysts had expected.

For the second quarter, CoreWeave projected revenue of $2.45 billion to $2.6 billion. The midpoint of that range, $2.53 billion, fell short of the $2.69 billion LSEG consensus, which appeared to be the primary driver of the after-hours selloff.

The company maintained its full-year 2026 revenue guidance of $12 billion to $13 billion and reiterated that annualized revenue should exceed $30 billion by the end of 2027.

CoreWeave also revised its 2026 capital expenditure forecast upward to $31 billion to $35 billion, compared with the $30 billion to $35 billion range it had announced in February. Chief Financial Officer Nitin Agrawal attributed the revision of the low end to changes in component prices.

"It's an issue, it's a problem, but we have an incredible capacity to navigate the supply chain," CEO Mike Intrator said on a conference call with analysts. "We have great partners, and we include the pricing that is required in order to end up delivering the infrastructure that's required, but also ensuring that we're able to secure the economics that we're targeting."

Operating expenses expanded faster than revenue during the quarter. Technology and infrastructure costs jumped 127% to $1.27 billion, while sales and marketing costs increased more than sixfold to $69 million. The company ended Q1 with a $99.4 billion revenue backlog and approximately 3.5 gigawatts of total contracted power.

To fund its data center buildout, CoreWeave raised $8.5 billion in new debt during the quarter — after announcing deals with AI startups Cline and Perplexity — and said it has secured more than $20 billion in debt and equity so far this year. The company closed the quarter carrying almost $25 billion in total debt. S&P upgraded its CoreWeave credit rating outlook to positive from stable, Agrawal said.

Key supplier Nvidia purchased an additional $2 billion in CoreWeave shares during the quarter. CoreWeave now counts 10 clients committed to spending at least $1 billion on its products. In 2024, Microsoft accounted for 62% of the company's revenue, a concentration the company has been working to reduce.

"We have reached hyperscale," Intrator said on the analyst call.

Intrator pushed back on investor focus on near-term metrics in an interview, arguing that the broader infrastructure buildout represents a more significant opportunity. "I always think that everyone is looking at the stock and focusing on the trees and missing the forest, right?" he said. "The forest is, there's this seismic level change occurring in our economy and being driven by these incredible technology companies that are dependent upon the infrastructure."

As of Thursday's close, CoreWeave shares had gained nearly 80% year to date, well ahead of the S&P 500's 7% gain over the same period. The company said it remains on track to have 1.7 gigawatts of power online by year end.

Whether CoreWeave can translate its surging backlog into consistent profitability — while managing debt that now approaches $25 billion — will remain a central question for investors as competition with established cloud providers intensifies.

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