Quick take: Ark Invest spent $16 million buying CoreWeave shares as the stock fell 7%, while cutting $10 million worth of Palantir, whose current price-to-earnings ratio stands at a hefty 244 times.
Nvidia's CEO stepping down and weaker guidance from rival neocloud players triggered a pullback in CoreWeave shares, prompting the market to question the stability of Nvidia's $2 billion partnership with the company.
CoreWeave holds a $132 billion order backlog, but that cannot offset its heavy debt load, sizable interest expenses, and customer concentration risk — its largest customer accounts for 67% of revenue. On Thursday, November 12, 2026, ARK Invest bought 283,022 shares of CoreWeave, Inc. (CRWV), a transaction worth roughly $16 million; on the day of the purchase, the stock fell 6.86% to close at $56.60. Through the same two funds, ARK sold 58,339 shares of Palantir (PLTR), worth about $10 million. Palantir moved very little that day, slipping 0.48% to close at $171.58. Ark did not disclose its reasons for the rebalancing, but Cathie Wood's firm chose to add to this debt-fueled AI infrastructure player during its pullback while trimming its position in this richly valued AI software leader.
Details of the trades: Both transactions were executed through the flagship ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) as well as another internet-themed fund under the firm. ARKK's November 12 holdings filing showed the fund held about 2,431,528 CoreWeave shares, equal to 2.37% of net asset value, and about 948,590 Palantir shares, equal to 2.63%. On the same day, ARK also bought roughly $8.9 million of Twist Bioscience (TWST) while modestly selling several other holdings. In other words, the Palantir reduction was just one part of a broad rebalancing rotation. Palantir remains one of ARKK's major holdings; this was a trim, not a full exit.
The CoreWeave decline came after a big earnings-driven rally. CoreWeave released its third-quarter report on November 10, closing that day at $48.73; on November 11 it surged 24.71% to $60.77; on November 12 it touched an intraday low of $50.17 before finishing at $56.60. That close was still above its pre-earnings level, but as of November 12 the stock had fallen 27.26% for the month. The market cited two main causes for the drop: first, weaker guidance from rival AI cloud provider Neocloud; second, after Jensen Huang stepped down as Nvidia's CEO, the market began worrying whether Nvidia's support for CoreWeave would continue. Nvidia had invested $2 billion in CoreWeave in January 2026. CoreWeave's CEO said on November 11, before news of Huang's departure emerged, that he saw no reason for the partnership to change.
Fundamental comparison of the two companies: CoreWeave currently has a valuation of about $25.97 billion. Third-quarter revenue rose 168% year over year to $3.66 billion, with an order backlog of $132.5 billion; the company plans $37 billion to $39 billion in capital expenditure, posted a third-quarter loss of $709 million, and its net interest expense alone reached $846 million. The order backlog locks in future revenue, but it cannot solve the financing costs created by massive investment, nor can it ease customer concentration risk. In 2025, its largest single customer contributed about 67% of revenue. Palantir has a valuation of about $395.78 billion, a debt-to-asset ratio of just 0.03, and a net margin of 36.3%; third-quarter revenue rose 95.9% year over year to $2.313 billion. The price of those strong fundamentals is a price-to-earnings ratio as high as 244 times. On November 12, Barclays cut its CoreWeave target price to $85 from $105, while Argus lowered its target to $100 from $150; both revised targets still sit above the current price. It is worth noting that although these results beat expectations, analysts promptly cut their target prices, reflecting rising market concern about its financing risk.
Key risks CoreWeave investors need to weigh: For investors nearing retirement, CoreWeave is very high risk: the company carries a large debt load and also has an ATM issuance program (on-demand secondary-market share sales of up to 35 million shares), creating equity dilution risk; its core supplier Nvidia has just undergone a management change. Within the ARKK portfolio, CoreWeave accounts for 2.37%; for a high-risk fund, that position size remains manageable even if the investment fails. Although ARK chose to reduce Palantir, the company has stronger financial quality. It expects adjusted free cash flow of $4.8 billion to $5 billion in 2026. As of November 12, the stock had fallen 17.77% cumulatively, partly digesting its growth-stock valuation. Looking ahead, the focus will be on Nvidia's earnings report on November 17. If CoreWeave falls below $48.73 after its earnings-driven move ends, that would mean it has given back all of the post-earnings gains, and market worries about its financing pressure would deepen further; if it can reclaim and hold above $60.77, then the November 12 decline was most likely just a short-term disruption.
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