Nvidia will invest $2 billion more in CoreWeave, which could further stoke concerns about circular financing in the AI ecosystem
CoreWeave CEO Michael Intrator said the expanded partnership with Nvidia reflects strong demand.
Shares of CoreWeave were climbing in Monday's premarket trading after Nvidia raised its bet on the cloud provider.
The companies are expanding their partnership to more quickly build out artificial-intelligence data centers. Additionally, Nvidia (NVDA) is investing $2 billion in CoreWeave's (CRWV) common stock at $87.20 per share.
The cloud-infrastructure provider aims to build more than 5 gigawatts' worth of AI data centers by the end of the decade. The data centers, which will be operated by CoreWeave, will run future generations of Nvidia's AI systems, including its upcoming Rubin AI chip platform and Vera central processing units. The data centers will also use the chip maker's Bluefield storage systems.
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"This expanded collaboration underscores the strength of demand we are seeing across our customer base and the broader market signals as AI systems move into large-scale production," CoreWeave CEO Michael Intrator said in a statement.
Nvidia was already a major CoreWeave investor, owning about 6.6% of the company's shares outstanding as of the end of September, according to FactSet data.
The latest investment underscores a polarizing aspect of the AI trade. While Nvidia's move could be interpreted as a sign of confidence that the AI era is only just getting started, critics have deemed past moves as examples of "circular financing," taking issue with how Nvidia has become so intertwined with some of its partners.
CoreWeave's stock is up more than 8% in premarket trades on Monday, while Nvidia's stock is down fractionally.
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-Britney Nguyen