CoreWeave (CRWV 8.37%), a provider of cloud-based AI infrastructure services, was one of the hottest growth stocks of 2025. It went public in March at $40, and it now trades at about $130. It dazzled the bulls with its explosive growth rates and ambitious plans for the future.
But can CoreWeave maintain that momentum over the next five years, or is too much growth already baked into its high-flying shares? Let's review its growth rates and valuations to see where this stock might be headed.
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What happened to CoreWeave before its public debut?
CoreWeave was once a cryptocurrency mining company that used Nvidia's GPUs to mine Ether. But after the crypto market crashed in 2018, it repurposed those GPUs to remotely process machine learning and AI tasks instead.
In 2022, the company expanded its cloud-based AI infrastructure platform by spending about $100 million on Nvidia's high-end H100 GPUs for its data centers. It then leveraged those GPUs to secure additional financing to purchase even more GPUs and build new data centers.
CoreWeave claims those dedicated GPUs allow it to process AI tasks roughly 35 times faster and 80% cheaper than larger and more diversified cloud platforms like Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure.
That innovative approach impressed Nvidia, which initially invested in CoreWeave in 2023 and now owns more than 6% of its outstanding shares. Nvidia recently agreed to purchase all of CoreWeave's unsold data center capacity through 2032. Other tech leaders -- including Cisco Systems and PureStorage -- also invested in CoreWeave. Its top customer is now Microsoft, which accounts for roughly 70% of its revenue.
NASDAQ: CRWV
Key Data Points
At the end of 2022, CoreWeave only operated three data centers. But that network grew to 14 centers in 2023, 15 centers in 2024, and 33 centers across the U.S. and Europe today. Its revenue skyrocketed from $16 million in 2022 to $1.9 billion in 2024.
That capital-intensive expansion caused CoreWeave's net loss to widen from $31 million in 2022 to $863 million in 2024 on a generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) basis. But its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) -- which excludes the depreciation costs of its hardware and the interest expenses and amortization from its debt -- turned positive in 2023 and rose nearly 12 times to $1.22 billion in 2024.
What will happen to CoreWeave over the next five years?
From 2024 to 2027, analysts expect CoreWeave's revenue to grow at a CAGR of 112% to $18.1 billion as its adjusted EBITDA rises at a CAGR of 120% to $13 billion. That expansion should be driven by more data center openings and the ongoing AI boom.
In September, it increased the value of its existing contracts with OpenAI by $6.5 billion to $22.4 billion. That expansion could gradually curb its long-term dependence on Microsoft. The total size of its backlog also swelled to $30.5 billion at the end of June, which indicates there's still plenty of pent-up demand for its cloud-based GPUs.
To meet that feverish demand, CoreWeave will likely continue to dilute its shares with more secondary offerings as it takes on more debt. It's already increased its number of outstanding shares by nearly 7% since its IPO, and it ended its latest quarter with just $1.2 billion in cash and equivalents while shouldering $22.4 billion in total liabilities and a high debt-to-equity ratio of 8.4.
CoreWeave recently tried to acquire Core Scientific for $9 billion to expand its data center capacity, but that all-stock offer was rejected in late October. Therefore, investors should expect CoreWeave to seek out other takeover targets over the next few years.
It might eventually face more competition from smaller competitors like Nebius or cloud giants like AWS in the nascent AI infrastructure market -- but its early mover advantage, its support from Nvidia, and its tight partnerships with Microsoft and OpenAI should give it plenty of room to grow. With a market cap of $67.9 billion, CoreWeave doesn't look too expensive at 6 and 4 times its projected sales for 2026 and 2027, respectively.
Assuming CoreWeave matches analysts' estimates through 2027, continues to grow its top line at a CAGR of 25% through 2031, and trades at 5 times its forward sales by 2030, its market cap could more than triple to $221 billion within the next five years. But it's still a speculative AI play, and investors should keep a close eye on its losses, debt, and dilution. If it doesn't keep those numbers in check, its breakneck expansion could be unsustainable.
