CoreWeave Stock Sinks 6.4%: Is Its Debt Killing AI Growth?

CoreWeave delivered a strong top-line quarter. The guidance that followed sent the stock sharply lower. Shares fell 6.4% in premarket trading Friday after the AI cloud company posted first-quarter revenue that beat expectations but issued a second-quarter profit outlook that fell well short of what Wall Street was looking for. Here is what the numbers say about CoreWeave’s growth story and whether the selloff is justified.

Revenue for the quarter reached $2.08 billion, up 112% year over year and ahead of the $1.97 billion consensus. Adjusted operating income came in at $21 million, below the $24 million analysts had expected and down sharply from $163 million in the same period last year.

The cost structure tells the real story. Depreciation and interest expenses combined equaled 81% of revenue in the first quarter, up from 77% in the fourth quarter. Interest expense alone accounted for 26% of revenue, and that figure is projected to rise at the midpoint of second-quarter guidance.

Second-quarter revenue guidance of $2.45 billion to $2.6 billion came in below expectations. Adjusted operating income guidance of $30 million to $90 million was the bigger problem, with the wide range and low floor rattling investors who had anticipated a cleaner profit trajectory. Full-year revenue and profit guidance was left unchanged, though capital expenditure guidance was nudged slightly higher.

CoreWeave expects to spend $31 billion to $35 billion on capital expenditures this year, funded primarily through debt. The company carried $25 billion in debt and $10 billion in lease liabilities at the end of the first quarter, with $38.5 billion in additional leases contracted for future years. Nearly $7 billion was spent on capex in the first quarter alone.

The company has moved aggressively to bring its cost of capital down. Its weighted average interest rate dropped three percentage points in 2025 and another 0.8 percentage points so far this year. A new delayed-draw facility carries a floating rate of around 6%, a meaningful improvement over senior notes paying nearly 10%.

The backlog remains a key source of investor confidence. It stood at $99 billion at last count, up $33 billion in just three months. Microsoft accounted for two-thirds of 2025 revenue, but large contracts with Meta Platforms and OpenAI are expected to broaden the customer base significantly this year. Wall Street projects full-year revenue of $12.5 billion, up from $5.1 billion in 2025. CoreWeave had just $16 million in sales in 2022.

D.A. Davidson maintained a Buy rating and $175 price target on the stock, arguing that CoreWeave’s ability to bring capacity online without delays remains its most valuable competitive advantage heading into the rest of the year.