CoreWeave CEO Mike Intrator commented on the company’s IPO pricing, which came in below initial expectations, emphasizing that it must be viewed within the broader context of current market conditions. He acknowledged the macroeconomic challenges that affected the pricing decision, stating that the company had to adjust the offering to match the level of investor interest. CoreWeave priced its IPO at $40 per share, lower than the original range of $47 to $55 per share. Despite this, the adjusted price provided a significant discount, which helped attract investors. CoreWeave, which offers access to Nvidia graphics processing units for artificial intelligence workloads, will now trade under the symbol “CRWV” on the Nasdaq.
Intrator expressed confidence in the company’s long-term success, noting that as the public market becomes more familiar with CoreWeave’s operations, infrastructure, and client relationships, it will become clear how capable the company is. The $1.5 billion raised in the IPO, at a valuation of around $19 billion, will be used to pay down debt and fund expansion plans. CoreWeave’s debt was approximately $8 billion at the end of 2024. The company’s rapid growth is driven by the rising demand for AI technology, with customer requests pushing CoreWeave to scale faster and build more capacity. Intrator also discussed the recent market activity sparked by DeepSeek, which has driven the company to accelerate its expansion efforts.
Regarding the company’s debt management, Intrator addressed a loan issue from the previous year in which CoreWeave experienced technical defaults. He clarified that the company had self-reported the issue in its S-1 filing and quickly resolved the matter with its lenders. Despite the default concerns, the lenders continued to support CoreWeave, providing hundreds of millions of dollars in additional funding to help the company meet its scaling needs, particularly in Europe.
CoreWeave’s IPO marks a significant milestone for the company, reflecting its pivotal role in the rapidly growing AI industry and its continued push for expansion and innovation in the cloud computing space.
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