CoreWeave (CRWV +6.41%) and Circle Internet Group (CRCL +8.83%) held initial public offerings (IPOs) earlier this year and both stocks have already posted monster returns. CoreWeave shares have tripled since March, and Circle shares have quadrupled since June.
A few hedge fund managers bought one of the stocks in the second quarter. The ones below, all billionaires, are particularly noteworthy because they outperformed the S&P 500 (^GSPC +1.05%) over the last three years, which makes their portfolios a good place to look for investment ideas.
- Philippe Laffont of Coatue Management purchased 3.3 million shares of CoreWeave, now the largest position at 8% of his portfolio.
- David Abrams of Abrams Capital Management purchased 275,000 shares of Circle, starting a position that accounts for about 1% of his portfolio.
- Ken Griffin of Citadel Advisors purchased 718,600 shares of Circle, starting a small position that accounts for less than 1% of his portfolio.
Read on to learn how CoreWeave and Circle are shaping the future of technology within their industries.
Image source: Getty Images.
CoreWeave: Shaping the future of cloud computing
Cloud computing is not a new technology, but CoreWeave is reshaping the industry with data centers purpose-built for artificial intelligence (AI). The company provides infrastructure and software services designed to help customers train and fine-tune AI models, and develop AI applications. And its recent acquisition of Weights & Biases added popular developer tools to the platform.
CoreWeave has a close relationship with Nvidia that often means it is first to market with the latest chips. Also, its technology stack is specifically built for AI, which means its platform offers better performance than traditional clouds, which results in lower costs for customers. Indeed, CoreWeave typically outperforms its peers at the MLPerf benchmarks, objective tests seen as the industry standard in measuring AI systems.
Those advantages recently won CoreWeave recognition as the technology leader among AI cloud platforms. Research company SemiAnalysis awarded CoreWeave the highest score, rating it above larger competitors like Amazon, Alphabet's Google, and Microsoft. Analysts commented, "We are starting to see some enterprises looking into renting from neoclouds, and most are gravitating toward CoreWeave."
CoreWeave has won several high-profile customers, including Google, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia, and OpenAI. In fact, the company recently expanded its agreement with OpenAI, bringing the total contract value to $22.4 billion, up from $11.9 billion when the deal was initially announced in March 2025. Further, another recently inked deal obligates Nvidia to purchase any unsold computing capacity through 2032.
Here's the big picture: The cloud computing market is worth about $940 billion today, but Grand View Research expects that figure to reach $2.4 trillion by 2030. CoreWeave is well positioned to benefit. The stock currently trades at 14 times sales, a reasonable valuation for a company whose revenue is forecast to increase at 90% annually through 2027.
NYSE: CRCL
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Circle Internet Group: Shaping the future of global finance
Stablecoins blend the price stability of fiat currencies with the efficiency and security of blockchain to support fast and inexpensive transactions. Circle is the issuer of USDC and EURC, stablecoins tied to the U.S. dollar and European euro, respectively. The company also provides adjacent developer tools that let businesses integrate digital asset storage and payments into applications.
The Circle Payments Network (CPN) could improve the global financial system by hastening settlement times and reducing costs for remittances, supplier payments, and payroll. Whereas traditional wire transfers via the SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications) system often incur high fees and take days to settle, CPN fees are usually lower and settlement happens almost instantly.
Circle reported encouraging second-quarter financial results. Revenue increased 53% to $658 million, due to strong growth in interest income -- which is earned on reserve assets invested in short-term U.S. Treasury bonds -- driven by an increase in the amount of circulating USDC. Adjusted EBITDA increased 52% to $126 million.
Congress earlier this year passed the Genius Act, legislation that could hasten stablecoin adoption by creating a federal regulatory framework. Shortly after President Trump signed the bill, Circle announced a partnership with Fidelity National Information Services, the world's second largest payment processor, that will offer domestic and cross-border stablecoin transactions to financial institutions.
Here's the big picture: The stablecoin market is worth about $300 billion today, but analysts anticipate rapid growth in the years ahead. Citigroup thinks the stablecoin market could reach $1.9 trillion (base case) to $4 trillion (bull case) by 2030. Circle is likely to be a major winner as more stablecoins enter circulation. The stock currently trades at 14 times sales, a fair multiple when Wall Street expects revenue to increase at 40% annually through 2027.
