CoreWeave Q1 Earnings Miss Guidance, Shares Drop 10%

CNBC reported Thursday that CoreWeave shares tumbled as much as 10% in after-hours trading following a first-quarter earnings report that beat top-line estimates but delivered a soft forward outlook and an upward revision to capital spending plans.

Q1 Beat Masked by Disappointing Q2 Outlook

CoreWeave posted first-quarter revenue of $2.08 billion, topping the $1.97 billion analysts had expected. Sales more than doubled compared to the same period a year earlier. However, the company projected second-quarter CoreWeave revenue guidance of $2.45 billion to $2.6 billion. The midpoint of that range fell well short of the $2.69 billion Wall Street had anticipated. The adjusted loss per share also widened beyond estimates, coming in at $1.12 versus an expected loss of 90 cents. Net losses for the quarter reached $740 million, compared to $315 million in Q1 2025.

Costs Climbing Faster Than Revenue

Operating expenses accelerated sharply during the quarter. Technology and infrastructure costs surged 127% year over year to $1.27 billion. Sales and marketing expenses rose more than sixfold. The company simultaneously revised upward the low end of its full-year capital expenditure target, now projecting $31 billion to $35 billion in 2026 spending. Finance chief Nitin Agrawal attributed the adjustment to shifting component prices driven partly by tariff pressures. CEO and co-founder Mike Intrator acknowledged the supply chain challenge but said the company had the capacity and partnerships to manage costs while protecting its economic targets.

Background: Debt-Fueled Data Center Expansion

CoreWeave has spent the past year aggressively building out GPU-dense data centers to serve AI model developers including OpenAI and Anthropic. The company competes directly with larger, well-capitalised cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services. To fund the buildout, CoreWeave has leaned heavily on debt markets, raising $8.5 billion in new debt in Q1 alone after inking deals with AI startups Cline and Perplexity. Total debt at quarter-end stood at nearly $25 billion. S&P Global upgraded the company’s credit outlook to positive from stable during the period.

Nvidia Doubles Down, Full-Year Targets Held

Key chip supplier Nvidia purchased an additional $2 billion in CoreWeave shares during the quarter, deepening an existing strategic relationship. CoreWeave maintained its full-year 2026 revenue guidance of $12 billion to $13 billion and said annualised revenue should exceed $30 billion by end-2027. The company closed Q1 with a $99.4 billion revenue backlog and 3.5 gigawatts of contracted power. Despite Thursday’s after-hours decline, CRWV shares had still gained roughly 80% in 2026 heading into the report, far outpacing the S&P 500’s 7% advance over the same stretch.

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