New York, February 20, 2026, 18:41 ET — After-hours
- CoreWeave shares fall 8.1% to $89.25 in after-hours trade, after swinging between $84.50 and $98.30 on the day.
- A report on debt financing for a Pennsylvania data-center project tied to Blue Owl set off fresh questions about funding for AI infrastructure buildouts.
- Investors now look to CoreWeave’s Feb. 26 results for updates on demand, spending and financing plans.
CoreWeave (CRWV.O) shares slid 8.1% to $89.25 in after-hours trading on Friday after concerns resurfaced about how one of its big data-center projects will be financed, pushing the stock to a session low of $84.50 before it clawed back.
The worry is simple: AI data centers eat cash. If lenders turn cautious, projects can still get built, but the price of money goes up, timelines slip, and growth stories start to look more fragile.
That matters for CoreWeave because investors have treated funding access as part of the product. The company’s pitch hinges on adding capacity fast enough to meet demand for graphics chips and power-hungry AI workloads.
Blue Owl Capital pushed back on a report that it was unable to secure financing for a $4 billion data-center project it is co-developing in Pennsylvania with CoreWeave. “Our sole obligation is to provide about $500 million of bridge financing through March 2026,” Blue Owl said. (Reuters)
Business Insider reported that lenders showed limited appetite for the Lancaster, Pennsylvania project, with CoreWeave’s credit profile a sticking point, and quoted Brennan Hawken, an equity analyst at BMO Capital Markets who covers Blue Owl, saying: “If there is a struggle to find the debt financing, that’s a red flag.” (Business Insider)
Options markets also reflected the nerves. Contracts traded well above average on Friday and implied volatility — an options gauge of expected swings — rose, pointing to bigger day-to-day moves priced into the stock. (TipRanks)
Separately, a Form 4 filed on Thursday showed Chief Development Officer Brannin McBee sold a total of 33,315 Class A shares in transactions disclosed as part of a Rule 10b5-1 plan — a pre-arranged trading program often used by insiders to set sales in advance. (SEC)
CoreWeave is a cloud infrastructure company that sells computing and software services designed for artificial intelligence workloads, including model training and inference. (Reuters)
The financing debate is not just about one site. Investors have been quick to punish the AI infrastructure trade when funding looks tighter, especially for projects that lean on debt markets and complex partnerships.
But the picture can flip just as fast. If CoreWeave or its partners spell out a clear funding path — or show demand that supports the spending — the stock’s latest drop could fade. If not, the concern is higher borrowing costs and slower buildouts, which can hit growth expectations.
Next up is CoreWeave’s fourth-quarter report on Feb. 26, when investors will press for detail on capacity additions, power availability and how the company expects to fund expansion into the spring. (Barrons)
