Pomegra
Record Revenue, Record Losses: A Tale of Two Income Statements
CoreWeave (Nasdaq: CRWV) reported fourth-quarter 2025 revenue of $1.572 billion, beating the Wall Street consensus estimate of $1.53 billion and representing 110% growth year-over-year from $747 million in Q4 2024. For the full fiscal year ended December 31, 2025, total revenue reached $5.131 billion, up from $1.915 billion in 2024 — a 168% annual increase that established CoreWeave as the fastest cloud business to cross the $5 billion annual revenue threshold.
The bottom line, however, delivered a stark contrast. Q4 net loss widened to $452 million, a 29% net loss margin, dramatically steeper than the $51 million net loss (7% margin) posted in Q4 2024. For the full year, the company recorded a GAAP net loss of $1.167 billion, compared to $863 million in 2024. Diluted loss per share came in at $0.89 for the quarter, missing the analyst consensus of -$0.68 and contributing to an after-hours stock decline of approximately 7.9% from the regular-session closing price of $97.63.
Interest Expenses and Infrastructure Costs Drive Loss Widening
The primary driver behind the ballooning losses was net interest expense of $388 million in Q4 alone — more than 2.6 times the $149 million recorded in the same period a year earlier — reflecting the company's aggressive debt-funded buildout of AI infrastructure. Full-year net interest expense reached $1.229 billion, compared to $361 million in 2024.
Total operating expenses for Q4 hit $1.661 billion, against revenue of $1.572 billion, producing a GAAP operating loss of $89 million. Technology and infrastructure expenses alone reached $950 million in the quarter, as CoreWeave accelerated the deployment of data center infrastructure ahead of schedule. The company ended 2025 with 43 active data centers — up from 32 at the start of the year — and more than 850 megawatts of active power capacity, having added approximately 260 MW in Q4 alone.On a non-GAAP basis, Q4 Adjusted EBITDA was $898 million, representing a 57% adjusted EBITDA margin, up from $486 million in Q4 2024. Full-year Adjusted EBITDA reached $3.093 billion at a 60% margin.
$66.8 Billion Backlog Cements Hypergrowth Visibility
The standout figure from the earnings release was CoreWeave's contracted revenue backlog of $66.8 billion as of December 31, 2025 — a gain of $11.2 billion sequentially and more than four times the backlog entering the year. The average weighted contract length extended from approximately four years to roughly five years, reflecting customers locking in foundational AI workloads over longer durations.
The company's customer base continues to diversify rapidly. New reserved instance customers onboarded in Q4 included Cognition, CrowdStrike, Cursor, Mercado Libre, Midjourney, and Runway. Hyperscaler relationships also expanded during the period. The number of customers committed to spending at least $1 million annually on CoreWeave Cloud grew by nearly 150% over the full year.
CEO Michael Intrator characterized demand as "relentless," noting that CoreWeave is "virtually sold out in 2026" and continues signing contracts tied to infrastructure expected to come online in 2027.
2026 Guidance: $12–$13B Revenue, $30–$35B CapEx
Management issued 2026 full-year revenue guidance of $12–13 billion, representing approximately 140% year-over-year growth at the midpoint — a trajectory that would further distance CoreWeave from traditional cloud peers in terms of growth velocity.
For Q1 2026, the company guided revenue of $1.9–2.0 billion with adjusted operating income of $0–$40 million, characterizing Q1 as the "trough" in the year's margin trajectory. Margins are expected to expand sequentially each quarter, returning to low double-digit levels by Q4 2026, with a long-term target of 25–30% adjusted operating income margins.
The company's 2026 capital expenditure plan stands at $30–35 billion, with management stressing that "substantially all" is tied to already-signed customer contracts. The buildout is expected to more than double active power capacity to over 1.7 GW by year-end 2026. Looking further out, CoreWeave targets adding more than 5 GW of additional capacity beyond its contracted footprint by 2030, with contracted power of 3.1 GW already in place and expected online by end of 2027.
Management also disclosed a long-term annualized run-rate revenue target: $17–$19 billion exiting 2026 and more than $30 billion exiting 2027.
Balance Sheet and Capital Markets Activity
CoreWeave ended 2025 with $4.2 billion in cash equivalents, restricted cash, and marketable securities, and total assets of $49.3 billion — nearly triple the $17.8 billion at year-end 2024, fueled by $30.6 billion in net property and equipment. The company's total liabilities reached $45.97 billion, with current debt alone at $6.7 billion and long-term debt at $14.7 billion.
During Q4, CoreWeave raised approximately $2.6 billion through an upsized convertible senior notes offering and expanded its revolving credit facility to $2.5 billion. For the full year, the company secured more than $18 billion in debt and equity, working with over 200 investment partners and financial institutions. The weighted-average interest rate declined 300 basis points in 2025 — representing nearly $700 million in annualized interest savings — with a cumulative reduction of nearly 600 basis points since 2023.
Technology Leadership and Strategic Milestones
CoreWeave reinforced its infrastructure technology leadership during the quarter, becoming the first cloud provider to achieve NVIDIA Exemplar Cloud status for training workloads on the NVIDIA GB200 NVL72, and retaining SemiAnalysis' Platinum ClusterMAX™ rating as the industry's sole platinum-ranked provider for a second consecutive ranking.
The company acquired Monolith, extending its AI cloud capabilities to industrial and manufacturing environments, and Marimo, unifying generative AI developer workflows. It also launched CoreWeave Federal to address government and public sector AI infrastructure demand and joined the U.S. Department of Energy's Genesis Mission.
Management highlighted that NVIDIA is testing and validating CoreWeave's proprietary cloud stack for potential inclusion in NVIDIA's reference architecture — a strategic relationship that could meaningfully expand CoreWeave's distribution over time, though this upside is excluded from the company's current 2026 guidance.
Market Reaction and Outlook
CRWV shares closed regular trading at $97.63 on February 26, 2026, before declining sharply in after-hours activity, with the stock falling to approximately $89.90 — down nearly 8% — as investors weighed the EPS miss and accelerating losses against a historically strong revenue print and a $66.8 billion contracted backlog.
The market's verdict reflects a broader tension in high-growth AI infrastructure equities: explosive top-line momentum versus the capital intensity and rising debt service costs required to build and maintain the world's largest purpose-built AI cloud. With $30–35 billion in capital expenditure planned for 2026 — backed by signed customer contracts — CoreWeave's path toward profitability remains firmly tied to the continued scaling of its revenue base against its heavy fixed-cost infrastructure.
---
Mentioned tickers: `CRWV, NVDA, META`
