Key facts
- CoreWeave reported $3.66 billion in third-quarter revenue, up 168% from the year prior, alongside a $709 million net loss.
- CoreWeave said it expects about $9 billion in customer prepayments and deposits over the next three months, including more than $3 billion tied to new contracts.
- CoreWeave carries a backlog of $132.5 billion for infrastructure it still has to build, per the company.
- CEO Michael Intrator said CoreWeave raised prices about 25% in July and another 10% later in the quarter.
- Intrator said short-term capacity sells at more than $40 million per megawatt annually, against $20 million to $25 million for four and five-year contracts.
- Yields on some CoreWeave bonds rose above 15% in October, according to the report.
CoreWeave said in its third-quarter earnings, reported on November 10, that it is changing how it funds the computing capacity it rents to AI customers. The company reported $3.66 billion in revenue, up 168% from the year prior, a $709 million net loss and $846 million in quarterly interest expense.
CEO Michael Intrator told the earnings call that CoreWeave will not use the unsecured debt market to fund its business at current yields. Instead, the company plans to borrow against specific customer contracts, drawing funds as needed to build out infrastructure behind a backlog it put at $132.5 billion.
CoreWeave said it expects about $9 billion in customer prepayments and deposits over the next three months, including more than $3 billion tied to signing new customer contracts for capacity it has already built, which requires no additional hardware spending. In August the company closed a $2.6 billion loan, its first designed for shorter-term customer contracts, known as DDTL 5.5, which lets it borrow in installments.
Intrator said CoreWeave raised prices across its offerings by about 25% in July and by another 10% later in the quarter, with prices still climbing in a way that more than offsets cost increases. He said the company is allocating more capacity to short-term deals, selling capacity at more than $40 million per megawatt annually, while pricing for new infrastructure on four and five-year contracts is moving to $20 million to $25 million per megawatt.
The report said lenders give more weight to longer-term contracts because they value predictable cash flow, and that yields on some CoreWeave bonds rose above 15% in October. It also said rivals Nebius and IREN have relied on large Microsoft prepayments to pay for computing capacity. TechCrunch said it had reached out to CoreWeave for more information about the loan facility.