CoreWeave CEO pushes back against circular investing concerns

In an interview Wednesday with CNBC’s Jim Cramer, CoreWeave CEO Michael Intrator brushed aside concerns that the company’s deals with other artificial intelligence giants were circular investments, saying such a narrative was “fundamentally flawed.”

“The reality of the situation is that very large, very important technology companies around the world are buying infrastructure to provide it to their customers – Meta, Microsoft, you know, Amazon, Google,” Intrator said. “I mean, the biggest tech companies in the world are buying this infrastructure because they have demand. There’s nothing circular about it.”

CoreWeave, which sells cloud infrastructure for AI, went public in March. This is the largest technology IPO in the United States since 2021, managing to raise $1.5 billion through the sale of shares. Since then, the stock has soared as investor appetite for AI and data centers continues to grow. It is currently up more than 200% since its debut on Wall Street.

CoreWeave is a major supplier to OpenAI and announced a $6.5 billion expansion of its current deal with maker ChatGPT late last month, bringing its total contracts with the company to $22.4 billion. Days later, CoreWeave signed a $14.2 billion deal with Meta. Earlier in September, the company also announced an order worth at least $6.3 billion from a chipmaker. Nvidiawhich is one of its main financial backers. Nvidia was already a major supplier to CoreWeave, and the recent agreement states that Nvidia “is obligated to purchase remaining unsold capacity” until April 2032.

Some on Wall Street worry that these deals — and many others at big tech — are too circular, meaning money flows from one company to another.

But Intrator insisted the deals represent “fundamental infrastructure development”. He said that when there is such massive infrastructure construction, “it’s not unusual to see partnerships where people are trying to provide infrastructure to consumers,” adding that this dynamic is happening in other markets.

“This narrative around circular investing — you know, it’s… dated, but it will pass,” he said. “Because the market fundamentals are huge.”

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Disclaimer CNBC Investing Club owns shares of Nvidia and Meta.