New York, Feb 27, 2026, 12:03 EST — Regular session
- CoreWeave dropped roughly 19% by midday, with shares under pressure after the company projected a significant spike in 2026 expenditures.
- Management pointed to short-term margin pressure, with the company scrambling to ramp up AI data-center capacity.
- Funding routes, progress on construction, and the U.S. inflation reading slated for March 13 are all in investors’ sights.
CoreWeave dropped roughly 19% to $79.09 by midday in New York, having hit a session low of $78.04. The stock had wrapped up Thursday at $97.63.
The AI cloud infrastructure company jolted the market with its forecast for 2026 capex: $30 billion to $35 billion, a figure that more than doubles its outlay for 2025. “Markets … are concerned about the long-term economics and how the company plans to fund the investment,” said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell. Reuters
That’s important right now—CoreWeave operates in the priciest stretch of the AI supply chain, where snapping up business hinges on speed, but rising funding costs can cut into margins before you blink. Investors haven’t hesitated to hammer firms touting growth only to show up with fatter expenses.
Friday brought unwelcome news: U.S. producer prices climbed faster than economists anticipated in January. That readout fueled expectations the Federal Reserve won’t cut rates just yet—an outlook that keeps funding costs in focus for companies needing cash. Next up, January PCE inflation figures drop March 13.
CoreWeave logged $1.572 billion in revenue for the fourth quarter, while posting a net loss of $452 million and net interest expense totaling $388 million. Year-end revenue backlog came in at $66.8 billion, representing contracted revenue still to be recognized. Cash and cash equivalents totaled $3.127 billion at the close of 2025.
CEO Michael Intrator said the company opted “to build faster” in order to get more infrastructure online, but noted that “Q1 is going to be the low point” for margins. On the call, CFO Nitin Agrawal told analysts that current spending lines up with already signed customer contracts. D.A. Davidson’s Alexander Platt pointed out the stock has been hit for “either having too little capex or too much capex.” Reuters
On Thursday, CoreWeave filed an 8-K, tacking on the earnings release as an attachment.
JPMorgan trimmed its price target on CoreWeave to $90 from $110 on the back of valuation concerns but kept a Neutral rating. Stifel also took its target down, now at $110 from $120, maintaining a Hold. Both pointed to the margin miss and increased spending.
Still, the selloff spells out a risk investors can’t ignore. Should the company fail to ramp up capacity on schedule—or if tighter credit bites as rates remain elevated—that backlog supporting the spending plan might quickly flip from an asset into a delivery headache, stretching out the path to profitability.
Next up, investors are eyeing whether fresh data-center power and GPU capacity actually land as promised, plus any new word on financing plans for the 2026 expansion. The big macro event comes March 13, with January PCE inflation numbers out from the U.S.
