Surge after the performance! Demand for cloud services continues to surge, AI computing power "barometer" CoreWeave (CRWV.US) backlog orders exceed $104 billion, and annual guidance has been raised.

NVIDIA Corporation-supported AI cloud infrastructure provider CoreWeave (CRWV.US) released its financial report after Tuesday's market close, injecting a much-needed boost into the recently questioned AI investment craze. After the market closed on August 11, the AI computing power supplier, dubbed "neocloud," announced its Q2 2026 performance for the period ending June 30, with both revenue and profit exceeding Wall Street expectations and backlog orders surpassing the $100 billion mark, driving its stock price up more than 14% in after-hours trading. Before the earnings release, CoreWeave's stock had risen approximately 26% this year. However, the stock had previously experienced significant volatilitydown about 21% over the past three months and retreating more than 40% from its 52-week high of $153.20. The options market had priced in about a 15% two-way volatility ahead of the earnings report. This better-than-expected performance is recalibrating market valuation expectations for this leading AI computing power company. Key financial data: Revenue crushes expectations, losses narrow beyond expectations CoreWeave reported revenue of $2.58 billion for Q2, a year-over-year increase of 112%, surpassing the analyst consensus of $2.56 billion. This figure falls within the company's previous guidance range of $2.45 billion to $2.6 billion. In terms of profitability, the company reported a net loss of $626 million for the quarter, or a loss of $1.14 per share, primarily driven by heavy interest expenses incurred for expanding infrastructurenet interest expense reached $640 million, more than double last year's $300 million, yet still considerably better than analysts' expected loss of $1.41 per share. Adjusted EBITDA was $1.51 billion, also exceeding the expected $1.43 billion. Adjusted operating income fell within the management's previously provided range of $30 million to $90 million. Despite the year-over-year increase in lossesfrom a net loss of $290 million in the same period last year the extent of the losses was better than market expectations, indicating that the company maintained some financial discipline amid rapid expansion. In terms of debt, as of the end of the quarter, the company had total debt on its balance sheet amounting to $35 billion, primarily used to cover the cost of purchasing NVIDIA Corporation GPUs and other equipment. Interest expenses reached $536 million in the first quarter, over eleven times the adjusted operating income, highlighting the financial pressure of a highly leveraged expansion model. Backlog exceeds $104 billion: Solid evidence of "shortage of AI computing power" The most exciting data for the market in CoreWeave's Q2 was the backlog of orders (Revenue Backlog), reaching approximately $104 billion, a 246% increase year-over-year and an increase from the previous quarter's backlog of $99.4 billion. The company also revealed that over $25 billion in net new customer commitments was added in early July, which means that the actual backlog significantly exceeds $104 billion. With over $25 billion in new customer net commitments obtained in early July, not included in the aforementioned $104 billion backlog, this indicates that as of early July, the total amount of contracts signed but revenue not yet confirmed approaches $130 billion. CEO Michael Intrator stated in the earnings report, "CoreWeave reached an important inflection point this quarter, as our scale begins to expanding operational leverage." Jefferies Financial Group Inc. analysts noted that CoreWeave had signed contracts for more than 3.86 gigawatts of power, implying an annual revenue potential of over $46 billion. Cantor Fitzgerald previously estimated that backlog orders could reach up to $131 billion by June 30. From an order conversion perspective, the company expects about 36% of the remaining performance obligations to convert into revenue within 24 months, meaning an annualized revenue pool of about $17.8 billion, far exceeding the mid-point of the fiscal 2026 revenue guidance of $12.5 billion. Analysts point out that the continually growing backlog indicates "strong ongoing demand for AI." In customer expansion, this quarter Meta committed an additional $21 billion to CoreWeave; Anthropic signed a multi-year cooperation agreement; and quantitative trading giant Jane Street committed $6 billion. CoreWeaves major clients also include OpenAI and Microsoft Corporation. The company also announced a collaboration with defense contractor Leidos to provide secure AI cloud services to U.S. federal agencies. Intrator mentioned on the analyst conference call that agreements signed by the company in Q2 would enable margins 5 to 10 percentage points higher than in recent quarters, partly due to capacity constraints allowing the company to secure more favorable terms. Aggressive expansion: Entering Asia, increasing capital expenditures and full-year guidance CoreWeave is accelerating its global footprint. The company announced plans to enter the Asian market for the first time, constructing three data centers in Indonesia with a total capacity of 360 megawatts. As of the end of the quarter, 1.5 gigawatts of signed power capacity were already operational, and active generation capacity is expected to exceed 1.85 gigawatts by year-end. CoreWeave expects its Q3 revenue to be in the range of $3.45 billion to $3.6 billion, with a mid-point of $3.525 billion reflecting a year-over-year growth of about 158%. Data shows that analysts previously estimated the sales figures to be at the lower end of this range. Based on strong demand momentum, CoreWeave has also raised its full-year outlook: The full-year revenue guidance for 2026 has been upgraded from $12 to $13 billion to $12.4 to $13.2 billion. Analysts' previous expectations for full-year revenue were $12.63 billion. Adjusted operating profit expectations have been raised from $900 million to $1.1 billion to $960 million to $1.15 billion. Annual capital expenditures have been raised from $31 billion to $35 billion to $35 billion to $39 billion. Industry barometer: Continued validation of the AI infrastructure investment craze As one of the few publicly listed new cloud computing providers, CoreWeaves performance is seen as an important barometer for overall AI computing demand. Its better-than-expected performance confirms the ongoing heating up of AI infrastructure investment. CoreWeave completed its IPO in March 2025, attracting a large number of investors with its deep collaborative relationship with NVIDIA Corporation (which is both its core chip supplier and a significant shareholder). CEO Mike Intrator stated during the analyst call that the pricing and margins of Blackwell and Vera Rubin SKUs are "reaching new highs"; CFO Nitin Agrawal pointed out that the company is passing the cost increases of components onto customers. As AI infrastructure investment transitions from an "arms race" to "structural growth," CoreWeave is becoming the most representative "new cloud" benchmark in this multi-trillion-dollar AI infrastructure wave, backed by its deep ties with NVIDIA Corporation, a backlog exceeding $100 billion, and an expanding global data center footprint. As CEO Intrator noted, the company has reached an inflection point where "scale begins to operational leverage"the critical question going forward is whether the $35 billion in debt can be converted quickly enough into sustainable profitability amidst ongoing high demand. From a broader industry perspective, many AI-related companies have recently disclosed impressive data. Last month, Microsoft Corporation reported the fastest growth in its cloud business in four years; Alphabet's Alphabet Inc. Class C cloud revenue exceeded expectations, with backlog increasing from about $460 billion to $514 billion. AI server manufacturer Super Micro Computer, Inc. released its earnings report on the same day, and semiconductor equipment maker Applied Materials is due to report results this Thursday. It is worth mentioning that CoreWeave has experienced significant volatility over the past two weeksAI-focused hedge fund Situational Awareness was forced to liquidate its public holdings due to leveraged margin calls, which put pressure on the stock prices of multiple tech companies. As of March 31, this fund held about 1.6% of CoreWeave's floating shares. Ken Griffins Citadel Securities ultimately took over a substantial position in AI stocks. CoreWeaves better-than-expected earnings report is helping the market reaffirm the true underlying demand for AI computing power.