It’s been quite a year for CoreWeave. In March, the AI cloud infrastructure provider went public in one of the biggest and most anticipated IPOs of the year, though it didn’t quite meet expectations.
In October, the company faced another setback when a planned acquisition of its business partner, Core Scientific, fell through due to concerns from shareholders of the acquisition target.
Throughout this period, CoreWeave has acquired various companies, with its stock fluctuating amid a mix of praise and criticism regarding its role in the rapidly growing AI data center market.
During an interview at the Fortune Brainstorm AI summit in San Francisco, CoreWeave’s co-founder and CEO, Michael Intrator, stood by his company amid criticism, highlighting that they are in the process of developing a “new business model” for cloud computing. He noted the worth of their collection of Nvidia GPUs, which they leverage to finance their operations. Intrator implied that forging a new path inevitably leads to some bumps in the road.
“I think people are myopic a lot of times,” Intrator responded when asked about the company’s fluctuating stock price. “Yes, it is seesawing,” he acknowledged, pointing out that CoreWeave’s IPO happened just before President Trump’s tariffs went into effect — a particularly uncertain time for the economy.
“We launched in one of the most challenging environments, right around Liberation Day, and despite the incredible headwinds, we were able to have a successful IPO,” he told Brainstorm’s editorial director Andrew Nusca. “I couldn’t be prouder of what the company has accomplished,” he added.
Although CoreWeave’s stock debuted amid economic uncertainty in March, its price has taken quite a journey since. It started at $40, climbed to over $150, and currently sits around $90. Some skeptical critics have likened it to a meme stock for its tendency to swing dramatically.
Much of the uncertainty surrounding CoreWeave’s stock can be attributed to the company’s substantial debt. Shortly after announcing a deal to issue more debt to fund its data center expansion, its stock dropped about 8%.
Intrator views his company as a disruptor, asserting that unconventional approaches might take time for people to adapt to. “When you introduce a new model or way of doing business, when you disrupt a static environment, it’s going to take some people some time,” he noted during his talk.
Initially, CoreWeave began its journey as a crypto miner but quickly evolved into a key player in providing “AI infrastructure” to some of the largest names in tech. The company supplies GPUs to AI developers and has partnered with Microsoft, OpenAI, Nvidia, Meta, and other major firms.
Another topic discussed was the idea of “circularity” in the AI industry. Such deals, where a few powerful AI firms invest in each other, have faced criticism and raised questions about long-term economic viability. Given that Nvidia is one of its investors and GPU suppliers, Intrator dismissed these concerns. “Companies are trying to address a violent change in supply and demand,” he said. “You do that by working together.”
Since its IPO, CoreWeave has continued its expansion efforts. After acquiring the AI developer platform Weights & Biases in March, the company also acquired OpenPipe, a startup focused on deploying AI agents through reinforcement learning. In October, it struck deals to acquire Marimo, which created an open-source notebook, and Monolith, another AI firm. CoreWeave has also announced an expansion of its cloud partnership with OpenAI and expressed intentions to enter the federal market, aiming to provide cloud infrastructure to U.S. government agencies and the defense industrial sector.
