CoreWeave Drops After Lowering Outlook on Capacity Crunch

CoreWeave Inc. signage in Times Square in New York, US, on Friday, May 9, 2025. After a heavily scaled down initial public offering, CoreWeave Inc. is in discussions to raise about $1.5 billion in debt, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Photo by Yuki Iwamura /Bloomberg

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(Bloomberg) — CoreWeave Inc. shares tumbled after the company lowered its annual revenue forecast due to a delay in fulfilling a customer contract, a setback in its race to keep up with the artificial intelligence boom. 

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Sales in 2025 will be $5.05 billion to $5.15 billion, CoreWeave said Monday during a conference call after reporting third-quarter results. Its forecast range had previously been as high as $5.35 billion.

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“We are affected by temporary delays related to a third-party data center developer who is behind schedule,” Chief Executive Officer Michael Intrator said during the call. Though the fourth-quarter results will reflect the snag, the client affected by the delay has agreed to adjust delivery schedules so “we maintain the total value of the original contract,” he said.

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The announcement underscored the challenges of meeting the insatiable demand for AI. CoreWeave shares, which have more than doubled this year, fell 13% to $92.03 at 11:47 a.m. in New York, the biggest intraday decline in three months.

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CoreWeave, which held its initial public offering in March, has attracted investors looking to bet on the explosion in artificial intelligence spending. The Livingston, New Jersey-based company is a close partner of AI chipmaker Nvidia Corp. and counts OpenAI and Microsoft Corp. among its customers.

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Part of a group of companies known as neoclouds, CoreWeave rents out access to powerful AI chips. High demand for its services has pushed CoreWeave to rapidly expand its data centers and equip them with the latest gear. It’s also sought to diversify its customer base after years of depending heavily on Microsoft.

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Watch: CoreWeave Deal Spree Goes on After Core Scientific Snub (Video)

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Delays getting more AI computing capacity online are persistent across the industry, Intrator said in an interview. And while CoreWeave was able to preserve the value of the contract, no one is happy about it.

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“Everybody is frustrated — the data center provider is frustrated, we’re frustrated, the client is frustrated,” he said, while declining to name the parties involved. “For that matter, people who are waiting for the next iteration of AI are frustrated.”

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The company is trying to make sure it has the right staff on site at various projects to catch issues early, Intrator said. “We’re doing all the right things. It’s just a challenging environment.”

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Intrator, who has declined to name either the customer impacted or the supplier facing delays, told Bloomberg Television on Tuesday that the data center supplier is “a good partner” that CoreWeave has worked with since 2018.

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“There’s a stumble, there’s an issue,” he said. “The issue is going to be cleaned up rapidly.” More broadly, CoreWeave is working to diversify suppliers to lessen the impact of any such issues in the future, he said.