Crypto miner turned AI provider CoreWeave adds billions in market cap

CoreWeave (CRWV), a cloud computing company specializing in AI, experienced a significant stock surge on May 16th following Nvidia’s disclosure of a substantial ownership stake. This revelation highlights growing institutional and corporate interest in the recently public company. CRWV’s stock price climbed by as much as 26.3% in New York trading, boosting its market capitalization to over $38 billion. Trading volume more than doubled the daily average. The stock closed around $81, a 23% increase.

Nvidia’s regulatory filings revealed a $900 million investment in CRWV stock at the end of Q1 2025. This represents a more than doubled value since March 31st, assuming no share sales by Nvidia. At CoreWeave’s IPO, Nvidia held 17.9 million shares. Since its late March IPO at $40, CRWV stock has increased by over 100%, significantly outperforming the Nasdaq and broader US market.

While Nvidia’s investment overshadowed CoreWeave’s first-quarter earnings report, the results were notable. Revenue surged 420%, but operating expenses increased by 487%, leading to a 143% widening of the net loss compared to the previous year. This caused a temporary stock dip following the May 14th release.

CoreWeave’s journey began in 2017 as an Ethereum mining operation, Atlantic Crypto. Shifting away from cryptocurrency in 2018 due to the bear market, the company rebranded to CoreWeave in 2019, leveraging its GPU infrastructure for cloud computing services. This strategic pivot allowed CoreWeave to capitalize on the AI boom and its established relationship with Nvidia, culminating in a successful IPO.

Beyond Nvidia, CoreWeave has secured other major investors, including OpenAI, which reportedly signed an $11.9 billion deal for AI infrastructure to support ChatGPT. CoreWeave operates within a rapidly expanding cloud computing market projected to reach $2 trillion by 2030 (Goldman Sachs) and a $600 billion global cloud AI market by 2032 (Fortune Business Insights), exhibiting a 28.5% compound annual growth rate.