The Potential and Challenges of Coal's Revival
Written by Emily J. Thompson, Senior Investment Analyst
Updated: May 17 2026
0mins
Source: CNBC
- Surging Market Demand: Babcock & Wilcox (B & W) currently holds a $2.7 billion backlog, with $2.4 billion stemming from its partnership with Applied Digital, indicating a robust growth in power demand driven by the data center boom, which may lead to a revival of coal.
- Significant Stock Performance: B & W's stock has surged 244% over the past year, rising from below $1 to $21, reflecting optimistic market expectations for its future growth potential, despite facing controversies related to Applied Digital.
- Policy Support for Coal: President Trump and the Energy Secretary are actively working to prevent the closure of coal plants, viewing coal as a vital national security resource, which could provide new business opportunities for companies like B & W, despite ongoing environmental concerns.
- Changing Competitive Landscape: B & W possesses unique capabilities in building natural gas power plants, and with GE Vernova currently at capacity, B & W's expansion potential may position it favorably in the future energy market, particularly in the combined use of coal and natural gas.
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Analyst Views on CRWV
Wall Street analysts forecast CRWV stock price to rise
25 Analyst Rating
12 Buy
13 Hold
0 Sell
Moderate Buy
Current: 117.030
Low
68.00
Averages
123.23
High
180.00
Current: 117.030
Low
68.00
Averages
123.23
High
180.00
About CRWV
CoreWeave, Inc. is a cloud infrastructure technology company. The Company offers the CoreWeave Cloud Platform, which consists of software and cloud services that deliver the automation and efficiency needed to manage complex artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure. Its CoreWeave Cloud Platform is an integrated solution that is purpose-built for running AI workloads such as model training and inference. Its solutions include infrastructure services, managed software services, and application software services. Its Infrastructure Services provide its customers with access to advanced graphics processing unit (GPU) and central processing unit (CPU) compute, highly performant networking, and storage. Its Managed Software Services include CKS, a flexible virtual private cloud and a bare metal service that runs kubernetes directly on high-performance servers. Its Application Software Services build on top of its infrastructure and managed software services, integrating additional tools.
About the author
Emily J. Thompson
Emily J. Thompson, a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) with 12 years in investment research, graduated with honors from the Wharton School. Specializing in industrial and technology stocks, she provides in-depth analysis for Intellectia’s earnings and market brief reports.
CoreWeave Stock Soars Following Cantor Fitzgerald Upgrade
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- Stock Surge: CoreWeave's stock rose 8% to $10.24 by Tuesday morning, primarily driven by a positive rating from Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Brett Knoblauch, indicating growing market confidence in the company.
- Price Target Increase: Cantor Fitzgerald raised its price target for CoreWeave from $115 to $167, suggesting a potential 44% increase in stock price over the next year, reflecting the analyst's optimistic view on the company's growth prospects.
- Long-Term Contracts: CoreWeave signed long-term contracts worth $40 billion in Q1 2026 and is expected to sign another $40 billion in Q2, establishing a solid foundation for future revenue growth, although this revenue will be realized over several years.
- Revenue Expectations: While CoreWeave is projected to reach $30 billion in annual recurring revenue by the end of 2027, analysts note that the company may still lose $1.25 per share in Q2, despite expected sales more than doubling year-over-year, highlighting the profitability challenges faced during its expansion.
See More
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- Training Performance Breakthrough: CoreWeave achieved a record-breaking training time of 2.02 minutes for the 671B DeepSeek-V3 model using 8,192 NVIDIA GB300 NVL72 GPUs in the MLPerf Training v6.0 benchmark, showcasing its leadership in AI infrastructure optimization.
- Full-Stack Optimization Advantage: CoreWeave's full-stack optimizations enable consistent performance across different cluster sizes, with a 4,096 GPU deployment reaching the Llama-3.1-405B reference quality target in 9.77 minutes while using 20% fewer GPUs than larger GB200 deployments, demonstrating efficient resource utilization.
- Infrastructure Reliability: The MLPerf results were achieved on production infrastructure available to customers, ensuring consistency between benchmark testing and real-world applications, further validating CoreWeave's competitiveness in the AI cloud service sector.
- Industry Leadership Position: CoreWeave was the only submitter in the MLPerf v6.0 round to scale a GB300 platform beyond 2,048 GPUs, and its full-stack expertise provides customers with significant real-world performance gains, helping AI teams accelerate model iteration and production deployment.
See More
CoreWeave's Stock Volatility and Future Outlook
- Stock Volatility: CoreWeave's shares surged approximately 10% on June 16 to around $117, yet remain 37% below last June's peak of $187, indicating cautious optimism about its future growth amidst market fluctuations.
- Revenue Growth: For the first quarter ending March 31, CoreWeave reported a 112% year-over-year revenue increase to about $2.08 billion, a 32% rise from the previous quarter, while its backlog of contracted future revenue reached $99.4 billion, reflecting strong market demand and a diversified customer base.
- Capital Expenditure Pressure: CoreWeave anticipates capital expenditures between $31 billion and $35 billion for 2023, primarily funded through debt, leading to a net interest expense that more than doubled to $536 million and a widened net loss of $740 million, highlighting the high costs of its expansion.
- Customer Concentration Risk: Despite securing significant contracts with major clients like Meta and Anthropic, 62% of its 2024 revenue still relies on Microsoft, indicating high customer concentration that could impact its growth trajectory, necessitating investor vigilance regarding sustained market demand.
See More
Allbirds Rebrands to Smartbird, Appoints New CEO
- Executive Change: Allbirds appointed Nadia Carlsten as the new CEO on Wednesday, replacing Joe Vernachio; Carlsten's previous leadership at Amazon Web Services' quantum computing center is expected to drive the company's pivot to AI infrastructure.
- Rebranding: Following an unexpected AI rebranding, Allbirds has changed its name to Smartbird, marking its transformation from a shoe manufacturer to an AI infrastructure firm, reflecting the company's keen insight into emerging technology trends.
- Stock Surge: Shares of Allbirds soared 34% after the new CEO announcement, indicating a positive market reaction to its transformation strategy, which may attract more investor interest in its future prospects.
- Market Performance: Since going public in 2021, Allbirds' stock has plummeted nearly 99% from a high of $577.80; this restructuring and new strategy could present new growth opportunities, especially against the backdrop of rapid advancements in the AI sector.
See More
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- Rebranding Initiative: Allbirds rebranded to Smartbird on Wednesday and appointed Nadia Carlsten as the new CEO, marking a significant shift from a footwear manufacturer to an AI compute infrastructure provider, demonstrating its strategic pivot in the rapidly evolving AI market.
- Leadership Change: Carlsten, who previously served as CEO of the Danish Center for AI Innovation, which partnered with Nvidia and housed the Gefion supercomputer, is expected to leverage her extensive AI experience to drive Smartbird's growth in the AI sector.
- Stock Surge: Following the rebranding and CEO appointment, Smartbird's shares soared by 34% on Wednesday, reflecting a positive market reaction to the company's new strategy and indicating increased investor confidence in its transformation.
- Market Transition: When Allbirds first announced its pivot to AI compute infrastructure in April, its market cap surged sevenfold, showcasing the company's ability to capitalize on market opportunities amid the booming AI technology landscape and achieve a significant business model transformation.
See More
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- Analyst Rating Changes: Bernstein reiterated an Underperform rating with a $67 price target on June 8, while Citi raised its target from $155 to $158 on May 14, maintaining a Buy rating, showcasing divergent market views on the company's future performance.
- Financial Concerns: DA Davidson downgraded CoreWeave from Buy to Neutral on the 18th, cutting the price target from $175 to $100, citing concerns over high levels of debt financing potentially impacting the company's profitability, indicating worries about its financial health.
- Industry Leadership: Jim Cramer praised CoreWeave's strength in data center construction, asserting its superiority over Oracle, which highlights its competitive edge and market recognition in the AI computing infrastructure space.
See More
