Key Takeaway:
- CoreWeave raised its 2026 CapEx floor to $31 billion, driven by the spiking component costs.
- The company’s revenue backlog surged to nearly $100 billion, a massive jump from $66.8 billion just months ago.
- Q2 revenue guidance was set between $2.45 billion and $2.6 billion, falling short of the $2.69 billion analysts expected.
CoreWeave Inc. raised the lower end of its 2026 capital expenditure forecast on Thursday as rising component costs and surging demand for AI infrastructure pressured spending, sending its shares down more than 9% in extended trading.
The cloud infrastructure provider increased the lower end of its annual capital expenditure forecast to $31 billion from $30 billion while maintaining the upper end at $35 billion. The company cited higher prices for advanced memory, storage, and other components tied to growing artificial intelligence demand.
Shares of CoreWeave fell sharply after the company also issued second-quarter revenue guidance below Wall Street estimates despite reporting stronger-than-expected first-quarter revenue.
CoreWeave Expands Spending Amid AI Infrastructure Race
Demand for cloud infrastructure providers, often called “neoclouds,” has accelerated as technology companies compete to secure computing power for artificial intelligence systems and the development of artificial general intelligence.
CoreWeave Chief Executive Officer Michael Intrator said customers are making long-term investments in data centers, creating supply constraints that are increasing component prices.
“We are on a fantastic ramp through the balance of this year into 2027,” Intrator told Reuters. “What I’m doing is I’m building a company.”
The company recently expanded a $21 billion cloud computing agreement with Meta Platforms and signed additional deals valued at $6 billion with trading firm Jane Street and another agreement with Anthropic.
CoreWeave added more than 400 megawatts of contracted power during the first quarter, bringing total contracted power capacity above 3.5 gigawatts, Intrator said during the company’s earnings call.
Revenue Beats Estimates Despite Rising Expenses
CoreWeave reported first-quarter revenue of $2.08 billion, surpassing analysts’ average estimate of $1.97 billion, according to LSEG data.
However, operating expenses more than doubled to $2.22 billion as the company continued expanding active power capacity, Chief Financial Officer Nitin Agrawal said during the earnings call.
The company’s revenue backlog rose to $99.4 billion as of March 31, compared with $66.8 billion at the end of December, reflecting growing long-term customer commitments.
For the second quarter, CoreWeave projected revenue between $2.45 billion and $2.6 billion, below analysts’ estimate of $2.69 billion.
“I think we did everything that we needed to do to have a great quarter,” Intrator said. “I think that is going to lead us into a great back half of the year.”
Analysts Compare CoreWeave Strategy to Amazon’s Early Growth
Andrew Rocco of Zacks Investment Research said CoreWeave’s strategy resembles Amazon during its early expansion years, prioritizing growth and market share over short-term profitability.
“If investors are willing to stay the course, CoreWeave positions itself to be a dominant player in the AI infrastructure industry,” Rocco said.
CoreWeave has built close ties with Nvidia, whose AI chips power much of the industry’s expanding computing infrastructure.
The company’s increased spending forecast highlights the growing costs tied to the global race for AI computing capacity as businesses invest heavily in advanced data centers and cloud services.
