CoreWeave (CRWV 2.71%) stock charged sharply higher today, gaining as much as 9.1%. As of 12:41 p.m. ET, the stock was still up 8.1%.
The artificial intelligence (AI) neocloud specialist reported a multiyear deal that bodes well for the future.
Image source: Getty Images.
A cloudy outlook
In a press release on Wednesday morning, CoreWeave announced a far-reaching multiyear strategic partnership with Perplexity AI. The high-profile AI start-up will power its next-generation inference workloads -- using large language models for problem-solving -- on CoreWeave's platform. This will help Perplexity scale its AI processing capacity as it grows.
Additionally, CoreWeave will roll out Perplexity's Enterprise Max -- the company's highest tier subscription AI offering -- across the company, allowing CoreWeave employees "to search the web and internal knowledge, run deep multi-step research, visualize and analyze data, and work with the most advanced AI models available -- all within one platform."
"AI applications running in production require more than just access to raw infrastructure," said Mas Hjelm, VP of revenue for CoreWeave. "They require best-in-class performance and reliability as well as a cloud platform designed end-to-end for AI that simplifies compute operations."
NASDAQ: CRWV
Key Data Points
CoreWeave is one of several emerging neocloud operators that provide AI-based cloud services by amassing state-of-the-art graphics processing units (GPUs) and other high-end chips to offer what is commonly referred to as GPU-as-a-service (GPUaaS). CoreWeave will be running Perplexity AI's workloads on Nvidia's Grace Blackwell GB-200 clusters.
This is an expansion of an existing relationship. CoreWeave Kubernetes Service was already powering inference workloads for Perplexity as part of the initial rollout, which included training, fine-tuning, and managing AI models.
CoreWeave is the largest of the neocloud operators. Revenue of $5.1 billion jumped 168% in 2025, while its loss per share of $2.81 improved 35%, though profits are still a way off. The stock is currently selling for more than 6 times sales, though that's down from a peak of 27 in mid-2025.
CoreWeave remains a high-risk, high-reward opportunity and should only be owned as a small part of a balanced portfolio.
