CoreWeave Stock Soars 16% as Q2 Revenue Doubles and Backlog Reaches $104 Billion

Key Takeaways

• CoreWeave’s second-quarter revenue increased 112% year over year to $2.575 billion, exceeding Wall Street’s estimate of roughly $2.56 billion.
• Revenue backlog climbed to approximately $104 billion, excluding more than $25 billion of additional customer commitments secured in early Q3.
• Management said contracts signed during Q2 carry expected margins five to 10 percentage points above deals added in recent quarters.
• CoreWeave shares surged nearly 16% in after-hours trading as strong demand outweighed concerns about debt, losses and capital spending.

CoreWeave shares rallied sharply after the artificial-intelligence cloud provider reported stronger-than-expected second-quarter results and disclosed another increase in contracted business.

Revenue reached a record $2.575 billion in the three months ended June 30, up 112% from $1.212 billion a year earlier and slightly above analysts’ forecast of approximately $2.56 billion.

The company recorded a net loss of $626 million, or $1.14 per share, compared with a $290 million loss, or $0.60 per share, in the year-earlier quarter. Although the loss widened in absolute terms, the per-share result was better than the roughly $1.20 loss expected by analysts surveyed by FactSet.

CoreWeave stock jumped nearly 16% in extended trading following the release. The rally also lifted sentiment toward other AI infrastructure providers, reflecting investors’ continued confidence in demand for high-performance computing capacity.

Backlog Reaches $104 Billion as New Commitments Accelerate

The most closely watched figure in CoreWeave’s report was its revenue backlog, which rose to approximately $104 billion as of June 30, up from $99.4 billion at the end of the first quarter.

The backlog includes remaining contractual performance obligations and other committed amounts CoreWeave expects to recognize as revenue after meeting service availability and delivery requirements.

Crucially, the total excludes more than $25 billion in net new customer commitments added during the opening weeks of the third quarter. Including those commitments would put CoreWeave’s prospective contracted business near $130 billion, although the additional amount had not yet entered the company’s official backlog at the quarter’s end.

Management also said contracts signed during the second quarter are expected to produce margins five to 10 percentage points higher than contracts added over the preceding several quarters. The improvement suggests constrained AI computing supply is allowing CoreWeave to secure more favorable terms.

CEO Michael Intrator said customer demand is accelerating as AI adoption expands across enterprises and the company develops a broader technology platform.

AI Infrastructure Capacity Continues to Expand

CoreWeave added almost 500 megawatts of active power capacity during the quarter, bringing its operational capacity to approximately 1.5 gigawatts. Total contracted power reached about 3.7 gigawatts as the company expanded its portfolio of suppliers, data centers and powered land.

New customers included Bentley Systems, Caterpillar, Grammarly, Isomorphic Labs and Sunday Robotics. CoreWeave also expanded its relationships with existing customers such as Cognition, Databricks, Hudson River Trading, Rescale and Runway ML.

The customer additions show that demand is spreading beyond major AI laboratories and hyperscale cloud providers into industrial, financial-services and enterprise markets.

CoreWeave also completed what it described as the industry’s first deployment and validation of Nvidia’s Vera Rubin NVL72 system. The company reported new MLPerf training and inference records using open-source models running on Nvidia’s Grace Blackwell platform.

At the software level, CoreWeave is expanding beyond basic GPU rentals. Its newer services connect AI training, inference, data access, observability and agent deployment across multiple cloud environments.

The company’s managed inference operation reached a $100 million annualized revenue run rate during Q2, up from approximately $1 million in the previous quarter. This type of higher-value service could help CoreWeave diversify its revenue and improve margins over time.

Revenue Growth Has Yet to Produce Bottom-Line Profit

CoreWeave’s rapid expansion continues to come with substantial financial costs.

Operating expenses more than doubled to $2.624 billion, resulting in an operating loss of $49 million. Net interest expense climbed to $640 million from $267 million a year earlier, reflecting the debt required to purchase chips and construct data centers.

Adjusted EBITDA doubled to $1.51 billion, but the corresponding margin fell to 59% from 62%. Adjusted operating income declined to $128 million from $200 million, while its margin contracted to 5% from 16%.

CoreWeave’s balance sheet showed approximately $35.1 billion of recourse and non-recourse debt at the end of June, compared with $5.52 billion in cash and cash equivalents.

The figures highlight the main question surrounding the company’s business model: its enormous backlog provides strong revenue visibility, but fulfilling those contracts requires similarly enormous upfront investment.

CoreWeave Raises Revenue and Capital-Spending Outlook

CoreWeave expects third-quarter revenue of $3.45 billion to $3.60 billion, above Wall Street’s estimate of roughly $3.4 billion.

The company also raised its full-year revenue guidance to between $12.4 billion and $13.2 billion, compared with its previous forecast of $12 billion to $13 billion.

However, projected capital expenditures were also increased. CoreWeave now expects to spend between $35 billion and $39 billion during 2026, up from its previous range of $31 billion to $35 billion. Second-quarter capital spending reached approximately $9.4 billion.

To finance its expansion, CoreWeave completed a $3.1 billion term loan and raised more than $10 billion through unsecured debt and convertible bonds, including its first euro-denominated bond. Jane Street also made a $1 billion strategic investment following an expansion of its commercial relationship with CoreWeave.

These transactions provide additional funding, but they also reinforce the company’s reliance on debt and external capital.

CoreWeave Becomes a Gauge of the AI Spending Cycle

CoreWeave’s results provide evidence that the AI infrastructure investment cycle remains strong. The company says its near-term capacity is effectively sold out, while its backlog and newly secured commitments continue to grow.

The higher projected margins on recent contracts are also significant. They suggest demand is not being sustained solely through aggressive pricing and that limited access to advanced computing capacity may be strengthening CoreWeave’s bargaining position.

The post-earnings rally shows investors are currently prioritizing revenue growth, backlog visibility and improving operating leverage. Nevertheless, the company must demonstrate that its $104 billion backlog can ultimately generate sufficient cash flow to justify its growing debt and capital commitments.