Key Highlights

  • On Sep 16 CoreWeave linked hundreds of Nvidia Rubin GPUs into a multi-rack Vera Rubin NVL72 cluster, following its June 1 claim of the first single-system Vera Rubin bring-up.
  • The company priced $3.7 billion of 2.875% convertible notes due 2033 on Sep 18 and set up an ATM program for up to 35 million shares.
  • Q2 Revenue rose 112% to $2.58 billion with about $104 billion of backlog, but net loss widened to $626 million as interest expense reached $640 million.
  • Shares closed at $86.76 on Sep 22, up from $79.88 on Sep 17 but still far below the 52-week high of $153.20.

CoreWeave (NASDAQ:CRWV) took its next step with Nvidia's (NASDAQ:NVDA) newest platform on Sep 16, announcing that it had brought up a multi-rack Nvidia Vera Rubin NVL72 cluster on CoreWeave Cloud, linking hundreds of Rubin GPUs into a single scale-out system aimed at agentic AI workloads. The announcement builds on an earlier milestone: on June 1, the company said it was the first AI cloud provider to bring up and validate a single Vera Rubin NVL72 system. The Sep 16 release itself did not claim the multi-rack cluster was an industry first, so the "first" distinction applies to the earlier single-system bring-up.

How CoreWeave got there comes down to engineering and money. The company said it automates rack setup through its Mission Control software, tests each rack as a full system before it enters production and connects racks over Nvidia Spectrum-X Ethernet so capacity can be added without redesigning the network. Funding that build-out is the other half of the story. In the same week, CoreWeave priced an upsized $3.7 billion convertible note offering, set up an at-the-market program for up to 35 million shares and secured a 15-year anchor Lease for Data Center capacity in Niagara Falls, New York.

The stock has responded positively but remains well below its highs. Shares closed at $86.76 on Sep 22, up from $79.88 on Sep 17, far below the 52-week high of $153.20.

Inside the Multi-Rack Rubin Build

Each Vera Rubin NVL72 rack pairs 72 Rubin GPUs with 36 Vera CPUs, along with Nvidia's NVLink 6 interconnect, ConnectX-9 SuperNICs and BlueField-4 data processing units. Linking multiple racks lets customers run Training and inference jobs across hundreds of GPUs, which the company said matters for multi-step agentic workloads that are sensitive to data-access delays.

"CoreWeave was the first AI cloud provider to validate and bring up a Vera Rubin NVL72," said Chen Goldberg, executive vice president of product and engineering. The company also added cross-region write acceleration and a lower-cost Archive tier to its AI Object Storage product, and cited Cohere as a customer using the storage platform across regions. Being early with each Nvidia generation has been central to CoreWeave's pitch to AI labs, which compete for the newest hardware.

Paying for the Build-Out

On Sep 18, CoreWeave priced $3.7 billion of 2.875% convertible senior notes due 2033, upsized from the $3.0 billion originally proposed, with an option for buyers to purchase up to $500 million more. The initial conversion price is about $97.85 per share, a 22.5% premium to the Sep 17 close. The company expects net proceeds of about $3.64 billion and will spend about $499 million on capped call transactions, with a cap price of $199.70, designed to reduce potential dilution. The rest is earmarked for general corporate purposes.

Separately, the ATM program allows CoreWeave to sell up to 35 million Class A shares over time, including through a collared forward sale structure. The company also said on Sep 17 that it had signed short-dated contracts in the third quarter at pricing equivalent to about $40 million of annualized revenue per megawatt, and that contracted power reached about 4.2 gigawatts as of Aug 11, up from 3.7 gigawatts at June 30.

On the capacity side, Blockfusion USA said its Subsidiary North East Data signed a definitive 15-year anchor lease with CoreWeave at its Niagara Falls campus, which runs largely on hydroelectric power, with two five-year renewal options.

Revenue Doubled, Losses Widened

CoreWeave's second-quarter results, released on Aug 11, showed revenue of $2.58 billion, up 112% from $1.21 billion a year earlier. Adjusted EBITDA rose to $1.51 billion, a 59% margin. However, the company posted an operating loss of $49 million and a net loss of $626 million, as net interest expense climbed to $640 million from $267 million.

Revenue Backlog stood at about $104 billion at June 30, and the company said it added more than $25 billion of net new commitments early in the third quarter that were not included in that figure. Management raised full-year 2026 revenue guidance to $12.4 billion to $13.2 billion and set adjusted Operating Income guidance of $960 million to $1.15 billion. Third-quarter revenue guidance was set at roughly $3.4 billion to $3.6 billion, and 2026 Capital Expenditure guidance was raised to $35 billion to $39 billion.

Where CoreWeave Fits in the AI Cloud Race

CoreWeave competes with hyperscalers such as Amazon Web Services (NASDAQ:AMZN), Microsoft Azure (NASDAQ:MSFT), Google Cloud (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Oracle (NYSE:ORCL), as well as specialist GPU clouds including Nebius (NASDAQ:NBIS) and Lambda. Its differentiation rests on speed of deployment and software tuned for large GPU clusters. The company highlights top rankings in SemiAnalysis ClusterMAX assessments and MLPerf benchmarks. The trade-off is scale: hyperscalers can fund expansion from operating cash flow, while CoreWeave relies heavily on Debt and Equity markets.

Risks That Come With the Scale

  • Leverage and interest costs: The company carries multiple high-yield note issues with coupons between 8.5% and 9.75%, and quarterly interest expense already exceeds operating income.
  • Dilution: The ATM program and convertible notes could add to the share count, although capped calls may offset part of the conversion impact.
  • Customer concentration: CoreWeave's own filings cite customer concentration and contract performance as key risks.
  • Execution: Power delivery, Supply chain timing and pending litigation are also flagged in company disclosures.
  • Pricing durability: Recent contracts are short-dated, so pricing could reset if GPU supply loosens.

Convertible Note Settlement and the Next Backlog Check

The notes were scheduled to settle on Sep 22, and investors will watch whether the underwriters exercise the $500 million option and how actively the ATM program is used. Third-quarter results are expected around Nov 9, though CoreWeave has not yet confirmed the date.

Key metrics will include progress toward the full-year revenue range, backlog including the $25 billion of new commitments, the ramp of Vera Rubin capacity, contracted power and trends in interest expense relative to adjusted operating income.