CoreWeave (CRWV 5.70%) reported second quarter 2025 earnings on August 12, 2025, delivering record revenue of $1.2 billion and adjusted operating income of $200 million, with contracted backlog reaching $30.1 billion and over 900 megawatts of active power deployment on track for year-end. Management announced rising demand across enterprise segments, substantive capital markets achievements, and revised full-year guidance, setting the stage for investor analysis on durability, competitive positioning, and structural headwinds in hyper-growth infrastructure cloud markets.

Revenue and backlog surge underscores CoreWeave demand outpacing supply

Management disclosed that revenue more than doubled year-over-year, with $1.2 billion in revenue recognized, and a sequential increase of $4 billion in contracted backlog, hitting $30.1 billion in contracted backlog. This backlog figure includes substantial multi-year expansions, notably with OpenAI, and signals both large-scale and diversified client additions outside hyperscaler tech, such as financial services and healthcare.

"We ended the second quarter with $30.1 billion in contracted backlog, up $4 billion from Q1 and doubling year to date. This includes not only the $4 billion expansion with OpenAI we previously discussed, but new customer wins ranging from large enterprise to AI startup. Importantly, we've also signed expansion contracts with both of our hyperscale customers in the past eight weeks. Our pipeline remains robust, growing increasingly diverse. Driven by a full range of customers from media and entertainment to healthcare to finance to industrials and everything in between. The proliferation of AI capabilities into new use cases and industries is driving increased demand for our specialized cloud infrastructure and services."
-- Michael Intrator, CEO

The unprecedented surge in both revenue and backlog indicates sustained, multi-industry demand acceleration and reinforces the attractiveness of CoreWeave’s differentiated AI infrastructure in a supply-constrained market, supporting a multi-year runway for structural growth.

Vertical integration strategy drives cost advantage and scalability for CRWV

The proposed acquisition of Core Scientific, alongside the closed acquisition of Weights and Biases, marks a deliberate move to control more of the value chain, with management projecting fully ramped annual run rate cost savings of $500 million by 2027 and immediate elimination of $10 billion in future lease liabilities. These moves build on vertically-integrated investments such as the $6 billion Pennsylvania data center, which expands the company's power and capacity footprint to more than 1.3 gigawatts upon integration.

"The rationale behind the deal is quite simple and powerful. Verticalization creates tremendous operational and financial efficiencies that will strengthen our ability to serve our customers at scale. Owning the infrastructure will allow CoreWeave, Inc. Class A Common Stock to scale faster and more efficiently. The integration of Core Scientific meaningfully advances our capacity to operate one of the largest and most sophisticated AI cloud platforms in the world. Upon closing, CoreWeave, Inc. Class A Common Stock would own approximately 1.3 gigawatts of gross power capacity across Core Scientific's national data center footprint. With an incremental one gigawatt or more available for future expansion. This scale enhances our flexibility to take on new projects and meet accelerated customer demand. In addition, the acquisition would drive the immediate elimination of more than $10 billion in future lease liability overhead, as well as a more streamlined and efficient operating model. As a result, we anticipate $500 million in fully ramped annual run rate cost savings by 2027 benefiting both the Core Scientific and CoreWeave, Inc. Class A Common Stock shareholders directly."
-- Michael Intrator, CEO

CoreWeave’s vertical integration directly enhances its capital efficiency.

Capital market access and financing innovation lower cost of capital for CoreWeave

During the quarter, CoreWeave raised $6.4 billion via two high-yield offerings and a delayed draw term loan, with the most recent $2.6 billion facility financing the $11.9 billion OpenAI contract at SOFR plus 400 basis points -- 900 basis points lower than prior non-investment grade facilities for the most recent delayed draw term loan facility. This multi-instrument capital access, coupled with no maturities until 2028 except vendor obligations, positions the company to sustain outsized infrastructure deployment without liquidity constraints.

"Since the beginning of 2024, we have secured over $25 billion of debt and equity to fund the build-out and scale the leading AI cloud platform. In May, we launched and closed our first unsecured high-yield offering of $2 billion which was upsized by $500 million due to strong demand. In July, we reentered the market and raised an additional $1.75 billion also oversubscribed, at a lower interest rate. More recently, closed our third delayed draw term loan facility. This $2.6 billion facility completes the financing for the $11.9 billion OpenAI contract we announced in March. Notably, the transaction was completed at a cost of capital of SOFR plus 400 a 900 basis point decrease from the non-investment grade portion of our prior facility DDTL2, and was the first one to be fully underwritten by top-tier banks. Together, these financings highlight our ability to drive a sustained reduction in our cost of capital and the increasing depth of access we have to the capital markets. Both of which were stated goals during our IPO."
-- Nitin Agrawal, CFO

Execution on capital raising at improving terms directly amplifies CoreWeave’s ability to pursue rapid capacity expansion while safeguarding shareholder dilution, further reinforcing a robust growth and investment cycle.

Looking Ahead

Management raised full-year 2025 revenue guidance to $5.15 billion to $5.35 billion, a $250 million increase from prior revenue guidance, while maintaining adjusted operating income outlook at $800 million to $830 million and CapEx expectations at $20 billion to $23 billion. Revenue for the third quarter is projected at $1.26 billion to $1.3 billion, with adjusted operating income guidance of $160 million to $190 million and CapEx of $2.9 billion to $3.4 billion. The company did not alter its multi-year infrastructure and margin expansion targets.