CoreWeave slides as surging capex, backlog risks overshadow small revenue beat

Core View - CoreWeave anticipates a significant increase in capital expenditure, expecting it to double in 2026 to between $30 billion and $35 billion, up from $14.9 billion in 2025, driven by the demand for AI cloud infrastructure [2][4] Financial Performance - The adjusted operating income margin for CoreWeave fell to 6% in the December quarter, down from 16% a year ago, indicating short-term pressure on margins due to heavy capital expenditures [3] - The company's revenue backlog surged to $66.8 billion as of December 31, 2025, compared to $15.1 billion a year earlier, driven by long-term cloud-compute agreements [4] Market Position - CoreWeave is competing against major tech companies that are expected to spend over $600 billion this year, highlighting the urgency for CoreWeave to scale its operations to meet surging demand [4] - Unlike larger tech firms, CoreWeave provides clients exclusive access to Nvidia's advanced GPU clusters without sharing capacity, positioning itself uniquely in the market [6] Infrastructure Development - As of the end of 2025, CoreWeave had over 850 megawatts of active power across 43 data centers and 3.1 gigawatts of contracted capacity, most of which is expected to be operational by 2027 [5] - The CEO emphasized the need for rapid infrastructure build-out to secure stable contracts, indicating a strategic focus on scaling operations [2][3]