CoreWeave Q2 2026 earnings send shares up 18% in premarket

CoreWeave Q2 2026 earnings pushed shares about 18% higher in premarket trading Wednesday, CNBC reported, after the AI cloud company posted more than 100% revenue growth and laid out its revenue forecasts. For investors, the report offered evidence of demand for AI computing capacity, while also showing that CoreWeave's buildout still carries substantial costs.

CoreWeave reported $2.575 billion in revenue for the quarter ended June 30, up from $1.212 billion a year earlier, according to its Aug. 11 results release. That is roughly 112% year-over-year growth. The company rents computing infrastructure designed for artificial-intelligence workloads, including the high-powered systems used to train and run AI models.

Why did CoreWeave stock rise after Q2 2026 earnings?

Investors appeared to respond to the pace of sales growth, CoreWeave's reported backlog and its forecasts. The company said it expects third-quarter revenue of $3.4 billion to $3.6 billion and full-year revenue of $12.4 billion to $13.2 billion, CNBC reported. It also forecast full-year adjusted operating income of $960 million to $1.15 billion.

Citi analysts called the period one of CoreWeave's cleaner quarters since its initial public offering, according to CNBC. They pointed to robust AI demand, pricing power, better-than-expected margins, software and token demand, and progress on execution and diversification of customers and revenue. Those are analysts' views, rather than confirmed future results.

CoreWeave reported a revenue backlog of about $104 billion as of June 30. The company said that figure was not recorded revenue and excluded more than $25 billion in net new customer commitments added in early third quarter. It also said revenue tied to the backlog remains subject to delivery and service-availability requirements.

Growth did not yet produce a GAAP operating profit

The bullish demand signals sit alongside a business still operating at a loss under generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP. CoreWeave's operating expenses reached $2.624 billion in the quarter, compared with $1.193 billion a year earlier. Expenses rose about 120%, slightly faster than revenue.

That left the company with a $49 million GAAP operating loss, versus $19 million of operating income in the year-earlier quarter. Its net loss was $626 million, compared with a $290 million net loss a year before. Net interest expense rose to $640 million from $267 million, according to the release.

Its non-GAAP measures also moved lower on a margin basis. Adjusted EBITDA, a company-reported measure, was $1.51 billion and its margin was 59%, down from 62% a year earlier. Adjusted operating income was $128 million, with a 5% margin, down from $200 million and 16% respectively.

What investors can take from the report

CoreWeave said it expanded active power by nearly 500 megawatts to 1.5 gigawatts and had about 3.7 gigawatts of contracted power. It also reported raising more than $10 billion of unsecured debt and convertible bonds. Those are company-reported buildout and financing updates, not a measure of total debt.

The next test will be whether the company delivers on its stated forecasts while managing costs. Investors seeking more context on management's outlook can review what happens on an earnings call: it is where executives discuss the reported quarter and forward-looking expectations with analysts.

This story draws on original reporting from CNBC.