CoreWeave Has $104 Billion of Contracted Revenue and a $59 Billion Market Value

CoreWeave (NASDAQ: CRWV) reported second-quarter results after the market closed on Tuesday, and the number that mattered wasn't revenue. It was the backlog. The artificial intelligence (AI) cloud provider's revenue backlog reached about $104 billion as of June 30, up from $30.1 billion a year earlier.

Shares jumped about 19% on Wednesday as of this writing, putting the company's market value near $59 billion.

Set those two numbers side by side and the stock trades at about 56 cents per dollar of contracted future revenue. The company defines that backlog as remaining performance obligations plus other amounts it estimates will be recognized as revenue under committed customer contracts, subject to delivery and availability requirements.

In other words, it's demand that customers have signed for but CoreWeave hasn't delivered yet.

The discount is about what sits between a signed contract and delivered revenue.

Image source: The Motley Fool.

Eight years of revenue, already signed

Demand is running well ahead of CoreWeave's ability to serve it. Second-quarter revenue rose 112% year over year to $2.6 billion. Management now guides 2026 revenue to $12.4 billion to $13.2 billion, up from the prior range of $12 billion to $13 billion.

Against that guide, a $104 billion backlog represents about eight years of this year's revenue.

And the signings keep coming faster. After adding about $74 billion to the backlog over 12 months, CoreWeave booked more than $25 billion of net new commitments in early Q3 alone -- a figure the $104 billion doesn't include. Meta Platforms added $21 billion to its spending commitments with CoreWeave, and CoreWeave announced a multi-year agreement with AI lab Anthropic along with a commitment from trading firm Jane Street.

Capacity, not demand, is the constraint. CoreWeave expanded its active power by nearly 500 megawatts in the second quarter to reach 1.5 gigawatts, and management is targeting more than 1.85 gigawatts by the end of the year. The backlog converts to revenue only as fast as that capacity comes online.

A $37 billion year

Turning contracted demand into delivered computing takes capital on a scale that rivals the backlog itself. Management raised its 2026 capital spending plan to $35 billion to $39 billion, up from the $31 billion to $35 billion it guided in May. At the midpoint, that's about three times this year's expected revenue, spent in a single year.

The financing costs are already visible. Net interest expense reached $640 million in the quarter, more than doubling from $267 million a year earlier. CoreWeave carried $35 billion of debt on its balance sheet at quarter end -- borrowing that covers the cost of Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs) and other equipment.

Depreciation weighs on the results from the other side. CoreWeave's adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) came in at $1.5 billion for the quarter, a 59% margin. However, adjusted operating income (which subtracts the depreciation on all of that equipment) was $128 million, a 5% margin, down from 16% a year ago. And the company's net loss widened to $626 million from $290 million.

Revenue is doubling while the profit measures that count the cost of the machines move the other way.

Even management's own full-year outlook makes the point. It guides 2026 adjusted operating income to $960 million to $1.15 billion, while interest expense is running at about $2.6 billion annualized.

Beyond the balance sheet

Of course, there's also friction that money alone can't fix. Data-center construction is drawing political resistance -- New York's governor signed an executive order in July placing a moratorium on new large-scale data centers. CEO Mike Intrator told CNBC that when parts of the country become unwilling to even discuss new projects, the job "becomes more challenging."

The contracts are signed, and the market isn't ignoring them. A company valued at half its backlog is arguably being taken quite seriously.

But I don't think the gap is a bargain. What the market is pricing is everything between signing and delivery: several years of build-out, about $37 billion of capital spending this year alone, an interest bill that already exceeds the company's own adjusted operating income guide, and depreciation that starts the moment the equipment goes into service. That bill, not the demand, is what the discount is about.

Daniel Sparks and his clients do not have positions in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Meta Platforms and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.