CRWV Stock Beats Industry Returns in a Year: Buy, Hold or Fold in 2026?

Core Insights - CoreWeave, Inc. (CRWV) has seen its shares rise 119% over the past year, significantly outperforming the Zacks Internet-Software Market and other tech peers [2][8] - The company has secured multi-billion-dollar contracts with major players like OpenAI and Meta, pushing its revenue backlog to over $55 billion [5][10] - Despite strong growth, CRWV faces challenges such as supply chain constraints and rising debt, which could impact future performance [12][13] Company Performance - CRWV's stock has outperformed Microsoft (MSFT) and rival Nebius Group N.V. (NBIS), which rose 13.3% and 185.8% respectively during the same period [3][8] - The company has expanded its partnerships, including a new deal with OpenAI valued at up to $6.5 billion, bringing the total contract value with OpenAI to approximately $22.4 billion [5][8] - CRWV's revenue backlog has increased significantly, with strong ties to key players like NVIDIA, enhancing its AI cloud capabilities [6][10] Growth Strategy - CoreWeave is aggressively expanding its data centers, deploying hundreds of thousands of GPUs and adding significant power infrastructure to meet AI workload demands [10] - The company is pursuing vertical and horizontal growth through strategic acquisitions, including the recent agreement to acquire Monolith AI Limited [11] - CRWV's focus on high-performance AI cloud services is reinforced by its expansion of Mission Control, a unified operational standard for enterprise tech teams [9] Financial Outlook - The company has revised its 2025 revenue guidance down to $5.05–$5.15 billion due to supply delays, impacting its near-term performance [12] - Interest expenses are projected to rise to $1.21–$1.25 billion in 2025, reflecting the company's increasing debt levels to fund capital expenditures [13] - Despite these challenges, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for CRWV's earnings for 2025 has been revised upward by 1.4% over the past 60 days [17]