Driven by a growing need for AI-focused hardware, CoreWeave has revised its financial forecasts for 2026 upwards, sending its share price up nearly 13% in after-hours trading. The company now expects annual revenue of between $13 billion and $13.3 billion (€11.6-11.9 billion), exceeding the previous market consensus of $12.9 billion (€11.5 billion).
The forecast for adjusted operating profit has also been raised, by 26%. CoreWeave now expects a figure of between $1.275 billion and $1.375 billion (€1.143-1.233 billion). Management said the company was on track to achieve positive adjusted earnings in the first half of 2028.
To meet the urgent needs of cloud providers and AI developers, CoreWeave is accelerating the rollout of its data centres. This aggressive growth strategy has led to a significant increase in capital expenditure, which rose to $14.5 billion (€13 billion) in the third quarter, compared with $9.4 billion (€8.4 billion) in the previous period.
As a result, the company has raised the lower end of its capital expenditure forecast for 2026 to $37 billion (€33.1 billion), while keeping the upper end at $39 billion (€34.9 billion), citing its intention to deliver infrastructure to customers sooner than originally planned.
The third quarter financial results show revenue of $3.66 billion (€3.28 billion). That is significantly higher than the $1.37 billion (€1.22 billion) recorded a year earlier and also exceeds analysts’ expectations. The adjusted loss per share was $1.27, compared with an expected $1.55.
However, the total net loss widened to $709 million (€636 million), compared with $110 million (€98 million) in the same quarter a year earlier. That increase was largely due to higher interest costs. These rose to $846 million (€758 million) because of the substantial borrowing needed to expand operations.
Debt burden
At the end of September, CoreWeave’s total debt stood at approximately $47 billion (€42 billion), with interest expenses expected to rise further in the final quarter of the year to between $1.05 billion and $1.15 billion (€941 million–€1.03 billion). Despite this financial pressure, the company has a substantial order backlog of $132.5 billion (€118.8 billion). It has also expanded its active infrastructure capacity to more than 1.7 gigawatts.
Despite the positive revenue outlook, the company’s share price has fallen by nearly 58% over the past month. This decline reflects investors’ concerns about the company’s enormous debt burden and broader worries about a possible bubble in the AI sector.
Because CoreWeave has relied so heavily on borrowing to expand its operations, it remains highly vulnerable to a sudden slowdown in the AI sector.
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