CoreWeave needed a lot of things to go right Monday when it released its third-quarter financial results, and one of the most important was showing that its future contracted revenues could reach the $50 billion target that Wall Street has set as the benchmark for an AI data center and infrastructure operator.
In its announcement, CoreWeave asserted that it has nearly doubled its backlog revenue, Which includes “remaining performance obligations” (RPOs) and other amounts that it estimates will be recognized as revenue to $55.6 billion, up from $30 billion in the prior quarter. This incremental rise in backlog, which represents future revenue from customers, was driven by contracts with Meta, OpenAI and French AI startup Poolside. Meanwhile, earnings and revenue beat analysts’ consensus estimates.
The company also announced an increase in debt on its balance sheet, and revised its full-year revenue guidance downward. After announcing its earnings and calling analysts, the stock fell 6% in after-hours trading.
some Investors have turned a sharp eye to CoreWeave as more skeptics begin to chip away at the booming AI trading frameworks and synchronized infrastructure building. Concerns about CoreWeave, which some see as a potential indicator of weakness in AI ramp-up, and about the AI backlog in general, sent the stock on a ride that saw it fall more than 30% from its mid-August highs.
The downward revision to revenue guidance reflects delays in construction of certain CoreWeave data centers. “While we are seeing relentless demand for our platform, data center developers across the industry are also experiencing unprecedented pressures across supply chains,” CEO Michael Intertur said during the analyst call. “In our case, we are impacted by temporary delays related to a third-party data center developer who is behind schedule.”
CFO Nitin Agrawal provided full-year 2025 revenue guidance of $5.05 billion to $5.15 billion, down slightly from the guidance Intrator provided on its second-quarter earnings call, which was $5.15 billion to $5.35 billion. The customer affected by the delay agreed to adjust the delivery schedule and extend the expiry date, meaning CoreWeave will keep the total value of the original contract, Intrator said.
Agrawal said The company’s 2025 capital spending will range between $12 billion to $14 billion, down significantly from Intrator’s forecast of $20 billion to $23 billion. last quarter. However, CoreWeave expects higher capex for 2026, Agrawal said.
“Given the significant growth in our backlog and continued insatiable demand for our cloud services, we expect capital expenditures in 2026 to be more than double what they were in 2025,” Agrawal said.
Revenue jumps, losses narrow, and debt increases
CoreWeave reported revenue of $1.4 billion for the quarter, up from $584 million in the same quarter last year and beating analyst estimates. Profitability, at least by traditional GAAP, remains elusive. CoreWeave reported a net loss of $110 million, although that was an improvement over its $359.8 million loss in last year’s third quarter and also better than analysts expected.
Adjusted net loss, which shows financial performance without exceptional items, was $41 million for the quarter compared with the same quarter last year when it was break-even, Agrawal said. Adjusted EBITDA, which shows profits without certain one-time expenses, was $838 million in the third quarter, compared with $379 million in the third quarter of 2024.
Operating income, a measure that shows profits from core businesses, fell to $51.9 million, compared to the same quarter last year when it was $117.1 million. Operating margins shrank to 4% from 20%.
Meanwhile, Agrawal, the CFO, said adjusted operating income, which shows a different view of core business performance, was $217 million for the third quarter, compared with $125 million in the third quarter of 2024. CoreWeave’s adjusted operating margin in the third quarter was 16%, due to higher revenues, lower costs and timing of third-party data center deliveries.
While Monday was just that silver lining for CoreWeave, analysts bullish on the AI-powered cloud computing company remain cautious about its finances. They see the company as being at risk of being overwhelmed by the large financial commitments it has made to build data centres, Which currently looks disproportionately large compared to its revenues and cash flows. And based on its latest earnings release, CoreWeave did just that $9.7 billion in bills due over the next 12 months on its balance sheet, and total $14 billion in the current and long term religion. last a fourthThese numbers amounted to $7.6 billion and $11 billion, respectively.
CoreWeave also has $34 billion in scheduled lease payments on contracts running between now and 2028. Interest expense came in at $311 million during the quarter, nearly tripling the figure from the same period a year earlier, of $104 million.
Meanwhile, CoreWeave bulls remain confident that revenue from the company’s contract book will eventually far exceed its debt obligations. Over the past three months, CoreWeave has announced a series of significant deals, booking a $14.2 billion deal to supply computing power to Meta and an agreement with Poolside to build a data center containing 40,000 Nvidia GPUs.
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