CoreWeave needed a lot of things to go right on Monday as it released third-quarter financial results, and one of the most critical was showing that its contracted future revenues could hit a $50 billion target Wall Street had set as a benchmark for the AI data-center and infrastructure operator.
In its announcement, CoreWeave confirmed it nearly doubled its revenue backlog, which includes “remaining performance obligations” (RPOs) and other amounts it estimates will be recognized as revenue, to $55.6 billion, up from $30 billion the previous quarter. The surging backlog, which represents future revenues from customers, was driven by contracts with Meta, OpenAI, and French AI startup Poolside. Earnings and revenue, meanwhile, both beat analysts’ consensus estimates.
The company also reported an increase in the debt on its balance sheet, however, and it revised its full-year revenue guidance downward. Following its earnings release and call with analysts, the stock dropped 6% in after-hours trading.
Some investors have trained a gimlet eye on CoreWeave as more skeptics kick the tires of the booming AI trade and the concurrent infrastructure buildout. Concerns about CoreWeave, which some see as a potential canary-like indicator of weakness in the AI ramp-up, and about the AI build-out in general have sent the stock on a journey that has seen it tumble more than 30% from mid-August highs.
The downward revision in revenue guidance reflected delays in construction of some of CoreWeave’s data centers. “While we are experiencing relentless demand for our platform, data center developers across the industry are also enduring unprecedented pressure across supply chains,” CEO Michael Intrator said during the analysts’ call. “In our case, we are affected by temporary delays related to a third-party data-center developer who is behind schedule.”
Chief financial officer Nitin Agrawal offered full-year 2025 revenue guidance of $5.05 billion to $5.15 billion, down slightly from the guidance Intrator offered on the second-quarter earnings call, of between $5.15 billion to $5.35 billion. The customer impacted by the delay agreed to adjust the delivery schedule and extend the expiration date, Intrator said, which means CoreWeave will maintain the total value of the original contract.
Agrawal said the company’s 2025 capex spending would be between $12 billion to $14 billion, down significantly from the $20 billion to $23 billion Intrator forecast last quarter. However, Agrawal said CoreWeave expects 2026 capex to soar.
“Given the significant growth in our backlog and continued insatiable demand for our cloud services, we expect capex in 2026 to be well in excess of double that of 2025,” Agrawal said.
