CoreWeave rose about 15% in after-hours trading after the AI compute infrastructure company released earnings that beat expectations and lifted its revenue outlook. The company projected third-quarter revenue of $3.45 billion to $3.6 billion and raised its full-year target to $12.4 billion to $13.2 billion, up from its previous $12 billion to $13 billion range.
Quarterly revenue topped expectations
CoreWeave reported second-quarter revenue of $2.58 billion, more than double from a year earlier and slightly above the $2.56 billion expected by the market. The company posted a loss of $1.14 per share, better than the $1.41 per-share loss forecast by Wall Street analysts.
For the third quarter, CoreWeave said revenue is expected to come in between $3.45 billion and $3.6 billion, near or above the top end of analyst expectations. Management also lifted its full-year revenue guidance to $12.4 billion to $13.2 billion on the back of strong operating trends.
Backlog climbed to $104 billion
At the end of the second quarter, CoreWeave's backlog stood at $104 billion. The company also said it secured more than $25 billion in new customer commitments after the quarter closed.
On margins, CoreWeave said contracts signed in the second quarter are expected to carry gross margins that are 5 to 10 percentage points higher than in previous quarters because compute supply remains tight. Chief executive Michael Intrator said the market is still facing constrained capacity.
Bloomberg Intelligence analysts said the expanding backlog shows that demand for AI remains strong and has not shown signs of slowing.
A barometer for AI data center spending
CoreWeave, a neocloud provider backed by Nvidia and closely tied to the chipmaker, has become a closely watched gauge for the AI data center buildout. Its latest results point to continued capital spending by large technology companies on AI infrastructure.
To meet demand from major customers including OpenAI, Meta and Microsoft, the company has continued to raise debt, buy AI chips at scale and expand its data center footprint. It also recently announced plans to build three data centers in Indonesia as part of its push into Asia.
The report noted that CoreWeave's stock had previously seen volatility after hedge funds liquidated positions. Even so, strong results across the broader AI supply chain also lifted sentiment for related cloud and data center names.