NVIDIA's Favored Child CoreWeave Surges 300% Post-IPO, Wall Street Doubts Fail to Halt Stock Rally

TradingKey - On June 9, Eastern Time, shares of AI infrastructure provider CoreWeave soared, closing with a gain of over 15%, marking an increase of more than 300% since its IPO. 

Experts note that the surge in CoreWeave's stock price is attributed to its status as one of the few tools in the public market that allows investors to indirectly bet on the success of OpenAI. Additionally, CoreWeave is a preferred partner of NVIDIA.

Endorsed by Industry Giants, CoreWeave Garners Significant Attention

Retail investors cannot invest in OpenAI directly, as it is a private company. However, CoreWeave holds shares in OpenAI and has secured a multibillion-dollar cloud infrastructure supply agreement with them, which extends until April 2029. Therefore, the market views CoreWeave as a proxy for OpenAI stock.

Moreover, as CoreWeave's second-largest customer, NVIDIA contributed 15% of its revenue last year, invested $100 million in the company, and prioritized the supply of hundreds of thousands of high-end GPUs. Such preferential treatment has led to CoreWeave being seen as "NVIDIA's favored child."

Recently, CoreWeave announced a leasing agreement with Applied Digital, further solidifying its presence across 33 AI data centers in the US and Europe, which triggered another stock price surge.

Impressive Performance Gains Investment Bank Attention, Yet Risks Remain

In the first quarter, its revenue grew by 420% year-over-year to $981.6 million, surpassing market expectations of $853 million. The second-quarter revenue is projected to be between $1.06 billion and $1.1 billion, again exceeding forecasts.

After the release of its first earnings report post-IPO, Barclays downgraded CoreWeave from "overweight" to "equal weight," indicating limited short-term upside potential but maintaining a positive long-term outlook.

Citi analyst Tyler Radke raised the price target to $94.00, maintaining a neutral rating, citing CoreWeave's strong first-quarter performance and robust growth momentum.

However, skepticism remains. From the onset of its IPO, Wall Street has questioned CoreWeave's high debt, customer concentration, and management's cash-out actions, prompting investment banks to reduce the IPO size and primarily allocate shares to existing investors.

Felix Wang, Managing Director at Hedgeye Risk Management, pointed out risks including high debt-to-equity ratios, negative profit margins, and heavy reliance on a single client. Last quarter, over 70% of revenue came from just one client, Microsoft, highlighting the risks of such a business model.

Additionally, CoreWeave's IPO lock-up period will expire in September this year, allowing restricted shareholders to sell their holdings, which could impact its stock price trajectory.