New York, Feb 27, 2026, 05:09 EST — Premarket
- CoreWeave shares looked headed for a steep drop at the open, as the company warned investors about increased 2026 costs and pressure on margins in the short term.
- Investors look at a record backlog, but they’re also sizing up what it’ll cost to build enough capacity to handle it.
- Attention is moving to financing costs, along with the timing of when new data centers actually get up and running.
CoreWeave slipped 10.6% to $87.33 before the bell Friday, building on losses from late Thursday after its quarterly report. Shares wrapped up the previous session at $97.63, a drop of 0.4%. 1
That early slide is hitting a nerve for AI infrastructure names. Demand isn’t really the problem—spending is. CEO Michael Intrator says CoreWeave chose to “build faster,” a move that crimps margins now. D.A. Davidson’s Alexander Platt points out the market isn’t patient: CoreWeave gets dinged for “too little capex or too much capex.” 2
CoreWeave doesn’t mince words in its own forecast. For the first quarter, the company expects revenue somewhere between $1.9 billion and $2.0 billion, while capital expenditures—mostly on hardware and data centers—are estimated at $6 billion to $7 billion. Interest expenses should fall in the $510 million to $590 million range. Looking ahead to the full year 2026, CoreWeave sees revenue rising to $12 billion to $13 billion, with capex soaring to $30 billion to $35 billion. 3
Fourth-quarter revenue climbed to $1.572 billion, according to a filing, though the net loss deepened to $452 million as interest expense hit $388 million. The company’s year-end revenue backlog — that’s contracted future revenue awaiting delivery and service availability — reached $66.8 billion. 4
On the call, finance chief Nitin Agrawal put capital spending at $8.2 billion for the fourth quarter and $14.9 billion across the year, crediting quicker-than-expected infrastructure rollouts. Agrawal noted the company ended 2025 holding $4.2 billion in cash and equivalents. Margins are set to pick up into 2026, he said, after starting the first quarter in the “low single digits.” 5
CoreWeave counts itself among the so-called “neo-cloud” firms, which focus on leasing out clusters of graphics processors—essential hardware for AI model training and inference—instead of offering the broad mix of public cloud services. The stock now serves as a kind of barometer for the pace of the AI infrastructure push and the sector’s appetite for leverage to keep that build going.
The risk here isn’t complicated: if there are delays, if borrowing gets pricier, or if demand wobbles even a little, CoreWeave’s cash needs could spike right as spending reaches its high point. According to Business Insider, the company has floated the idea of tapping Nvidia as a guarantor for certain data-center lease obligations while it shops for new funding. S&P Global Ratings’ Steven McDonald told the outlet CoreWeave has “outperformed” initial red flags like customer concentration and power access. S&P still holds the company at a B+ rating—below investment grade—but keeps the outlook stable.
There’s also the issue of backlog—those orders don’t convert to revenue unless the needed capacity arrives as scheduled. CoreWeave’s putting out cash before it sees the return, which leaves little space for mistakes on the operations side.
In the coming session, eyes are on whether those premarket losses stick at the bell and how shares trade near the low $90s and upper $80s following the guidance update. After that, the next significant event on the calendar is the company’s earnings report slated for May 20. 6
