Since the start of October, CoreWeave, Inc. (CRWV.US) shares have plunged by more than one-third, as market attention shifted rapidly from revenue growth to the company's approximately $52 billion in debt and lease obligations, based on figures as of the end of the second quarter.
This company, backed by NVIDIA (NVDA.US), is not a native AI firm. Its predecessor was Atlantic Crypto, established in 2017, which initially used graphics processing units for ETH mining before pivoting to become a computing services provider in 2019 and rebranding as CoreWeave.
Although second-quarter 2026 revenue reached $2.575 billion, representing a year-over-year increase of 112%, the capital markets responded with remarkable indifference: the quarter recorded a net loss of $626 million and net interest expense of $640 million.
According to data compiled by Woofun AI, yields on some of its unsecured bonds have climbed to roughly 15%, while credit default swap (CDS) spreads have breached 11% and hit a record of 1,194.5 basis points on October 15, with borrowing costs significantly outpacing revenue growth.
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang publicly stated on October 15 that CoreWeave does not need assistance from the chipmaker and claimed its capital costs are declining, but these remarks failed to lift market confidence — the stock had already plummeted 15% the previous day, marking its largest single-day drop since February.
The relationship between NVIDIA and CoreWeave is intricate: not only does it supply chips and hold roughly a 9% stake, but it has also committed up to $6.3 billion to backstop capacity purchases.
Additionally, old ties to the cryptocurrency sector remain intact. CoreWeave has long leased data center hosting space from Core Scientific (CORZ.US), a Bitcoin mining company transitioning into AI hosting, whose shareholders rejected a $9 billion acquisition offer from CoreWeave in October 2025.
Currently, GPU rental providers built on NVIDIA chips are broadly under pressure. Both Nebius (NBIS.US) and IREN (IREN.US) have seen their share prices fall at least 30% this month, moving in close synchronization with CoreWeave.
If CoreWeave fails to complete debt refinancing, all enterprises reliant on debt financing to build GPU facilities — including mining companies in transition such as Core Scientific — face upward risks to their borrowing costs.
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