Shares Surge After Earnings! Cloud demand continues to soar, AI computing power "barometer" CoreWeave (CRWV.US) backlog exceeds $104 billion, raises full-year guidance

According to Zhitong Finance APP, AI cloud infrastructure provider CoreWeave (CRWV.US), backed by Nvidia, released its financial report after market close on Tuesday, giving a boost of confidence to the recently questioned AI investment frenzy. On August 11, CoreWeave—hailed as a “neocloud” representative in AI computing power—announced its results for the fiscal second quarter ended June 30, 2026. Both revenue and profits surpassed Wall Street expectations, and its backlog order volume broke the $100 billion mark, driving its share price to surge more than 14% in after-hours trading.

As of the close before the financial report, CoreWeave’s share price had climbed about 26% year-to-date. However, the stock had experienced significant volatility—down about 21% over the past three months and retreating more than 40% from the 52-week high of $153.20. The options market had priced in about 15% two-way volatility ahead of the results. This round of better-than-expected earnings is helping to re-anchor the market’s valuation expectations for this AI computing leader.

Key Financial Data: Revenue Crushes Expectations, Loss Narrowing More Than Anticipated

In the second quarter, CoreWeave achieved revenue of $2.58 billion, up 112% year-over-year, exceeding the average analyst expectation of $2.56 billion. This figure was at the high end of the company’s previous guidance range of $2.45 billion to $2.6 billion.

In terms of profitability, the company reported a net loss of $626 million for the quarter, equating to a loss of $1.14 per share, mainly due to high interest expenses incurred for infrastructure expansion—the net interest expense this quarter reached $640 million, more than double that of the same period last year, but still considerably better than the analyst expectation of a $1.41 per share loss. Adjusted EBITDA reached $1.51 billion, also exceeding the analyst forecast of $1.43 billion. Adjusted operating income was within management’s previous range of $30 million to $90 million.

Although losses widened year-over-year—the net loss was $290 million in the same period last year—the degree of loss was better than the market expected, indicating that the company has maintained some financial discipline during rapid expansion. Regarding debt, the company’s total balance sheet debt at the end of the quarter reached $35 billion, mainly used to pay for Nvidia GPUs and other equipment purchases. Interest expenses in Q1 had already risen to $536 million, more than 11 times adjusted operating income, highlighting the financial pressure of the high-leverage expansion model.

Backlog Orders Exceed $104 Billion: Ironclad Evidence of “Short Supply” in AI Computing

The most exciting data point this quarter for CoreWeave was backlog orders (Revenue Backlog) reaching approximately $104 billion, up 246% year-over-year, and continuing to climb from $99.4 billion at the end of the previous quarter. The company also disclosed that in early July, it received over $25 billion in net new customer commitments, meaning the actual backlog far exceeds $104 billion.

In early July, the company obtained more than $25 billion in new net customer commitments, which are not included in the above-mentioned $104 billion backlog. This means that as of early July, the company’s total signed but unrecognized revenue contracts were approaching $130 billion.

CEO Michael Intrator stated in the earnings release, “This quarter marks an important inflection point for CoreWeave—our scale is beginning to translate into growing operating leverage.”

According to Jefferies analysts, CoreWeave has signed for over 3.86 gigawatts of power capacity, implying annual revenue potential of over $46 billion. Cantor Fitzgerald previously estimated that by June 30, the backlog could reach as high as $131 billion.

In terms of order conversion, the company expects about 36% of its remaining performance obligations to convert to revenue within 24 months, indicating an annualized revenue pool of approximately $17.8 billion—well above the midpoint of guidance for $12.5 billion for fiscal 2026. Analysts note that the ever-growing backlog indicates “AI demand remains robust.”

Regarding customer expansion, this quarter Meta committed an additional $21 billion to CoreWeave; Anthropic signed a multi-year partnership; and quantitative trading giant Jane Street committed $6 billion. Other major clients include OpenAI and Microsoft. The company has also announced a partnership with defense contractor Leidos to provide secure AI cloud services to US federal agencies.

During the analyst call, Intrator said that agreements signed in Q2 will add 5–10 percentage points to profit margins compared to recent quarters, partly thanks to supply constraints, which have enabled the company to secure more favorable terms.

Aggressive Expansion: Entering Asia, Raising CapEx and Full-Year Guidance

CoreWeave is accelerating its global expansion. The company announced its first foray into the Asian market, with three data centers to be built in Indonesia, totaling 360 megawatts of capacity. As of the end of the quarter, 1.5 GW of the company’s signed power capacity was operational, and expected to exceed 1.85 GW of active capacity by year-end.

CoreWeave expects third-quarter revenue to be between $3.45 and $3.6 billion, with a midpoint of $3.525 billion, representing about 158% year-over-year growth. The data shows analysts previously expected sales to be at the low end of this range.

On the back of strong demand, CoreWeave has also raised its full-year outlook:

The full-year revenue guidance for 2026 has been raised from $12–13 billion to $12.4–13.2 billion. Analysts previously expected full-year revenue of $12.63 billion.

Adjusted operating profit forecast has been raised from $900 million–$1.1 billion to $960 million–$1.15 billion.

Annual capital expenditures are now expected to be $35–39 billion, raised from the prior $31–35 billion estimate.

Industry Barometer: AI Infrastructure Investment Boom Continues to Be Validated

As one of the few listed neocloud computing providers, CoreWeave’s performance is seen as a key indicator of overall AI compute demand. Its stronger-than-expected results confirm the ongoing surge in AI infrastructure investment fever.

CoreWeave completed its IPO in March 2025, and with its close partnership with Nvidia (which is both its core chip supplier and a major shareholder), has attracted a large number of investors. CEO Mike Intrator said on the analyst call that pricing and margins for Blackwell and Vera Rubin SKUs “are hitting record highs,” while CFO Nitin Agrawal noted that the company is passing rising component costs on to customers.

As AI infrastructure investment shifts from an “arms race” to “structural growth,” CoreWeave—thanks to its deep Nvidia integration, $100 billion+ in contracted backlog, and ever-expanding global data center footprint—is becoming the most representative neocloud benchmark in this trillion-dollar AI infrastructure boom. As CEO Intrator noted, the company has reached the “inflection point where scale translates into operating leverage”—the key question now is whether the $35 billion in debt can be quickly converted into sustainable profitability amid continued surging demand.

Against the broader industry background, several AI-related companies have recently reported stellar results. Last month, Microsoft posted its fastest cloud growth in four years; Google Cloud under Alphabet beat revenue expectations and saw backlog grow from about $460 billion to $514 billion. AI server maker Supermicro also released results on the same day, and chip equipment maker Applied Materials will report earnings this Thursday.

It’s worth noting that CoreWeave experienced violent swings over the past two weeks—AI-focused hedge fund Situational Awareness was forced to liquidate its public holdings due to a leveraged margin call, putting pressure on several tech stocks. As of March 31, the fund held about 1.6% of CoreWeave’s float. Citadel Securities, owned by Ken Griffin, subsequently took over large AI stock positions. CoreWeave’s better-than-expected earnings are now helping the market reconfirm the true underlying strength of AI compute demand.