CoreWeave: capital expenditure grew 139.9% as revenue growth slowed to 115.3%

The slowdown shows a business still expanding quickly but losing momentum. CoreWeave, which rents out cloud computing and GPU-based infrastructure to artificial-intelligence customers, reported revenue of $7.6 billion for the period.

Where the capital spending is going

TTM capital expenditure rose 139.9% year over year to $20.6 billion, equal to 271.0% of TTM revenue, a faster pace of growth than revenue itself. Operating cash flow over the same twelve months grew 983.6% year over year to $6.9 billion, a rate large enough to suggest a low prior-year base as well as genuine growth in billings, though the filings used here do not separate the two effects.

That operating cash flow was still not enough to cover the capital outlay: free cash flow came to −$13.7 billion, a margin of −179.9%, though that margin was 45.2 percentage points less negative than a year earlier. Net income for the same twelve months came to −$1.9 billion, a net margin of −25.4% — a far smaller loss than the free cash flow deficit, a gap that reflects capital spending sitting outside the reported loss rather than any improvement in underlying profitability.

Growth slowing as spending accelerates

The buildout continues even as the growth it is meant to serve loses pace. TTM revenue growth decelerated to 115.3%, down 14.6 percentage points from the prior quarter's pace, a continued pullback from earlier rates of expansion. Gross margin stood at 67.4%, a level that has held up even as other margins compress. Net income for the twelve months came to −$1.9 billion, a net margin of −25.4%.

Shares outstanding also kept climbing. That dilution occurred alongside the slowdown in TTM revenue growth and the rise in capital intensity described above.

Financing the buildout

CoreWeave has also issued a substantial number of new shares over the period: diluted shares outstanding rose 75.4% year over year. That increase coincides with the $13.7 billion cash shortfall described above, though the filings reviewed here do not state that the two are connected.

What it means for value

The gap between capital spending and free cash flow bears most directly on the free cash flow margin assumption in Fundamentalytics' discounted cash flow model for CoreWeave, though this analysis does not include a stated sensitivity for that input. These are model values under stated assumptions, not a comparison with the share price.

The table below summarises the twelve-month figures discussed above; where a prior quarter was later restated, the year-over-year comparisons use the most recently filed value.

For CoreWeave's full financial history, see its company page.