CoreWeave, Inc. (CRWV) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript
Access earnings results, analyst expectations, report, slides, earnings call, and transcript.
Overview
The earnings call reveals strong growth in customer commitments and operational performance, with record active power and contracted power milestones. However, the company also faces significant financial challenges, including a substantial net loss and increased interest expenses. The Q&A section highlights confidence in future growth and strategic partnerships, but also notes rising costs and a cautious approach to guidance. Overall, the mixed financial results and cautious guidance suggest a neutral market reaction.
Key Financial Performance
Revenue $2.1 billion in Q1 2026, up 112% year-over-year and 32% sequentially. The increase was driven by strong execution in deploying capacity and intensifying demand for CoreWeave Cloud.
Revenue Backlog $99.4 billion at the end of Q1 2026, up nearly 50% sequentially and close to 4x year-over-year. Growth was attributed to record customer commitments and diversification of the customer base.
Operating Expenses $2.2 billion in Q1 2026, including $153 million in stock-based compensation. The increase was due to scaling active power capacity, converting backlog into revenue, and investments in sales, marketing, and G&A to support growth.
Adjusted EBITDA $1.2 billion in Q1 2026, up 91% year-over-year. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 56%, reflecting strong operational performance.
Net Loss $740 million in Q1 2026, compared to $315 million in Q1 2025. The loss was driven by increased interest expenses and scaling infrastructure.
Interest Expense $536 million in Q1 2026, compared to $264 million in Q1 2025. The increase was due to higher debt levels to support infrastructure scaling.
Adjusted Net Loss $589 million in Q1 2026, compared to $150 million in Q1 2025. The loss reflects increased costs associated with scaling operations.
Capital Expenditures (CapEx) $6.8 billion in Q1 2026. The spending was focused on executing infrastructure projects and scaling capacity.
Active Power Surpassed 1 gigawatt in Q1 2026, a milestone achieved by only a few cloud companies. This reflects CoreWeave's ability to convert infrastructure into revenue-generating capacity.
Contracted Power More than 3.5 gigawatts as of Q1 2026, with the majority expected to be online by the end of 2027. This growth was achieved through long-term leases and strategic partnerships.
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Operating Highlights
Customer Bookings: Signed more than $40 billion of new commitments, growing contracted revenue backlog to nearly $100 billion.
Revenue Growth: Generated approximately $2.1 billion of revenue, up 32% quarter-over-quarter and 112% year-over-year.
Platform Capabilities: Broadened platform capabilities to serve diverse customer use cases, including training, inference, and agentic workloads.
New Customers: Added Anthropic as a customer and signed multiple new orders with Meta, including a $21 billion agreement.
AI Cloud Platform: Introduced CoreWeave's Trust Center and expanded integrated AI cloud capabilities, including CPUs, storage, networking, and software solutions.
Market Expansion: Addressable market is expanding with AI workloads moving into enterprise production across industries.
Customer Base Diversification: 10 customers committed to spending at least $1 billion, including new verticals like financial services and physical AI.
Global Reach: Expanded contracted power to more than 3.5 gigawatts, with the majority expected online by 2027.
Infrastructure Scale: Surpassed 1 gigawatt of active power and added 400 megawatts of contracted power in Q1.
Capital Efficiency: Secured more than $20 billion of debt and equity year-to-date, reducing weighted average cost of debt by 80 basis points.
Operational Flexibility: Introduced Flex Reservation and Spot pricing for better customer budget management.
Financing Strategy: Closed $8.5 billion investment-grade Delayed Draw Term Loan Facility, achieving an A- equivalent rating.
Self-Build Sites: Planning to accelerate development of self-build sites for greater operational control and financial upside.
Customer-Centric Approach: Launched CoreWeave Omni to deploy and operate cloud stack in customers' data centers.
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Risk or Challenges
Supply Chain Challenges: The company faces complexities in global supply chains, which remain challenging despite operational discipline and strategic sourcing efforts.
Capital Expenditure Increases: The company has increased its capital expenditure guidance due to rising component pricing, which could impact financial flexibility.
Debt and Interest Expense: The company has significant debt obligations, with interest expenses increasing due to the growth in debt balances to finance deployments.
Margin Pressures: The company experienced low adjusted operating margins in Q1, which are expected to improve but remain a concern in the short term.
Execution Risks: The company faces challenges in rapidly scaling its infrastructure, including the complexity of deploying new data centers and ensuring timely delivery of contracted power.
Customer Concentration: A significant portion of revenue backlog is tied to a few large customers, which could pose risks if these customers reduce or delay commitments.
Economic and Market Conditions: The company operates in a highly competitive market and relies on favorable economic conditions to sustain growth and financing.
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Guidance & Outlook
Revenue Projections: CoreWeave expects Q2 2026 revenue to be in the range of $2.45 billion to $2.6 billion. Full-year 2026 revenue guidance is reaffirmed at $12 billion to $13 billion. The company anticipates ending 2026 with $18 billion to $19 billion of annualized run rate revenue, increasing the low end of expectations by $1 billion. By the end of 2027, annualized run rate revenue is projected to exceed $30 billion, with more than 75% already contracted.
Capital Expenditures: Q2 2026 CapEx is expected to be $7 billion to $9 billion, with full-year 2026 CapEx guidance increased to $31 billion to $35 billion due to higher component pricing.
Margin Projections: Adjusted operating margin is expected to expand sequentially throughout 2026, returning to low double digits by Q4 2026. Contribution margins for new deployments are expected to normalize in the mid-20s by the third month of operation.
Power Capacity Expansion: CoreWeave plans to reach or exceed 1.7 gigawatts of active power by the end of 2026 and has contracted more than 3.5 gigawatts of power, with the substantial majority expected to be online by the end of 2027. The company aims to achieve more than 8 gigawatts of active power by 2030.
Customer Commitments and Backlog: Revenue backlog reached $99.4 billion, with 36% expected to be recognized in the next 24 months and 75% in the next 4 years. The company has secured commitments from 10 customers, each committing to spend at least $1 billion.
Product and Platform Development: CoreWeave introduced new offerings such as Flex Reservation, Spot pricing, and CoreWeave Omni, with strong early interest. The company also launched CoreWeave Interconnect in collaboration with Google Cloud to simplify multi-cloud management.
Financing and Capital Structure: CoreWeave secured more than $20 billion of debt and equity capital year-to-date, including an $8.5 billion investment-grade Delayed Draw Term Loan Facility. The company has no debt maturities until 2029, other than self-amortizing contract-backed debt and OEM vendor financing.
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Shareholder Return Plan
The selected topic was not discussed during the call.
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Key Q&A
Q:Can you explain how higher component pricing affects profitability and the company's approach to managing it?
A:The company incorporates the cost of all components into their contracts, insulating them from price inflation. They have built a resilient supply chain and include necessary pricing in their client contracts to maintain targeted margins in the mid-20s.
Q:What changed in the NVIDIA relationship this quarter, and how does it relate to the 5 gigawatts within the 8 gigawatt active power target for 2030?
A:NVIDIA qualified the company's software solution as a reference architecture, validating its quality. The 5 gigawatts provide an opportunity to secure additional infrastructure at scale, complementing the 2 gigawatts secured in the last 12 months and 400 megawatts in the last quarter.
Q:What gives you confidence in the bottom-line build in the second half of the year?
A:The company reaffirmed full-year guidance, citing sequential revenue and margin growth, a resilient supply chain, and diversified data center providers. They expect adjusted operating income to accelerate faster than revenue growth in the second half.
Q:How does the company manage previously signed contracts given rising component and energy costs?
A:The company prices deals with purchase orders in hand and has structured contracts to pass through costs, ensuring targeted margins are met despite rising component and energy costs.
Q:Why not pass through Q1 revenue upside into full-year guidance?
A:The company remains sold out for 2026 capacity and has raised the floor of 2026 exit ARR guidance. They are focused on executing their plan and have already booked over 75% of their 2027 ARR guidance.
Q:What determines revenue recognition from the backlog, and what drives gross margin improvement?
A:Revenue is recognized when capacity is deployed, tested, and handed over to customers. Gross margin improvement is driven by scaling operations, with new deployments initially causing negative contribution margins but stabilizing as contracts ramp up.
Q:How fast is inferencing growing as a share of consumed power, and what does it imply for utilization and contracting economics?
A:Inferencing now exceeds 50% of compute usage, indicating strong monetization by clients. Demand for GPUs like H100s and A100s remains high, with the company sold out and seeing price appreciation.
Q:How much of the component procurement for 2026 revenue is locked in?
A:The overwhelming majority of component procurement for 2026 revenue is already locked in, including GPUs, memory, and other infrastructure.
Q:What is the company's approach to matching supply to demand for incremental power?
A:The company coordinates securing data center capacity with client demand, leveraging a robust pipeline of opportunities and self-build data centers to ensure supply matches demand.
Q:How does the company allocate or sell its remaining capacity, and is the amount to allocate increasing or decreasing?
A:The company allocates capacity thoughtfully to build an ecosystem of leading clients. The amount to allocate depends on orchestrating power, labor, memory, and storage to meet demand.
Q:Review of Unclear Management Responses
A:No questions were identified where management avoided giving a direct answer or lacked clarity in their responses.
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Earnings Word Cloud
The most frequently occurring keywords in this quarter's earning call
AI cloud
CPU
GPUs
backlog
capability
capacity
capital market
cloud platform
commitment
cost debt
customer
demand
developer
development
end
enterprise
financing
gigawatt power
gigawatts
inference workload
infrastructure
investment grade
lease
model
networking
partner
scale
self build
set
shift
software
storage
term
training
workload CoreWeave
world
CRWV Transcript
CoreWeave, Inc. (CRWV) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript
Unknown5-8
The earnings call reveals strong growth in customer commitments and operational performance, with record active power and contracted power milestones. However, the company also faces significant financial challenges, including a substantial net loss and increased interest expenses. The Q&A section highlights confidence in future growth and strategic partnerships, but also notes rising costs and a cautious approach to guidance. Overall, the mixed financial results and cautious guidance suggest a neutral market reaction.
CoreWeave, Inc. (CRWV) Presents at Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference 2026 Transcript
Neutral3-4
CoreWeave, Inc. (CRWV) Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript
Positive2-26
The earnings call reveals strong financial performance with a 25% YoY revenue increase, improved gross margin, and higher net income. The company's expansion into new markets and strong demand for cloud services further contribute positively. Despite the lack of discussion on operational updates and return plans, the financial results and optimistic guidance suggest a positive outlook. However, the lack of Q&A insights limits a more robust rating.
CoreWeave, Inc. (CRWV) Presents at UBS Global Technology and AI Conference 2025 Transcript
Neutral12-3
CRWV Slides
Frequently Asked Questions
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