CoreWeave (CRWV) CEO Michael Intrator didn’t flinch when CNBC’s Jim Cramer came in hot. 

With CoreWeave stock stumbling on a relatively strong quarter, Intrator dismissed the market’s reaction with a response you’d expect from someone who has witnessed hype cycles before. 

Revenue shot up nearly 50%, with the company backlog ballooning past $55 billion, yet shares dropped due to one thing: a construction delay. 

On CNBC, Intrator deemed the quarter “exactly as planned, except for one data-center provider,” insisting that demand remains “insatiable” as customers such as Meta Platforms and Microsoft aren’t going anywhere. 

It was the kind of snapback that reminds its loyal investors that the company’s AI engine is still running full throttle.

CEO Michael Intrator insists expansion remains on track, despite supply-chain setbacks.

Tom Williams/Getty Images

The CoreWeave quarter that should have been a victory lap

On paper, it was exactly the quarter that should’ve had confetti flying at CoreWeave’s headquarters. 

Revenue increased more than 50%, as CoreWeave’s backlog surged past $55 billion, with it inking new multi-year deals with Meta and OpenAI. 

Everything pointed to a victory lap until investors noticed a small catch. Things hit a snag that was buried in the fine print of construction schedules and concrete pour dates.

The numbers no one could ignore

Just skimming through the headline numbers, you’d assume that CoreWeave is killing it. 

Third-quarter sales surged 134% to $1.365 billion (beating estimates by $80 million), driven by AI demand that remains incredible. Its backlog doubled to $55.6 billion, backed by hefty long-term commitments that most of its peers could only envy.

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Also, its Q3 GAAP EPS came in at a negative 22 cents, beating estimates by 29 cents.

On top of that, CoreWeave added nearly 120 megawatts of active power, taking its footprint to nearly 590 MW, along with another 2.9 gigawatts contracted. It even had more than a gigawatt that was still available to sell over the next couple of years.

Additionally, its customer list reads more like a who’s who of AI.

It included a brand-new $14.2 billion multi-year deal with Meta, along with a deeper expansion with OpenAI (totaling $22.4 billion in commitments), as well as performance benchmarks that kept the company atop independent rankings. 

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And yet, the celebration ended early. 

CFO Nitin Agrawal trimmed the 2025 sales outlook to $5.05-$5.15 billion, on the back of data-center delays, pushing revenue recognition out a quarter.

Moreover, its margins narrowed to 16% from 21%, as interest expense shot up with  CoreWeave scaling with debt. 

For a stock that’s already up 160% since its IPO, even the robust numbers CoreWeave put out weren’t enough to dodge a “sell the news” reaction.

Inside the CoreWeave delay and Intrator’s calm defense

Cramer didn’t waste any time sugarcoating. “You missed the quarter,” he opened. 

However, CoreWeave CEO Michael Intrator quickly retorted, saying, “I’m proud of this quarter.” 

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He added that the market’s reaction essentially stumbled into more of a logistics hiccup: “Every single part of this quarter went exactly as we planned, except for one delay at a singular data-center provider.”

Cramer pressed Intrator on whether that “provider” was Core Scientific. He replied by saying, “They have infrastructure, they have power, they have capacity, they’re a good partner.”

He repeated it like it was a mantra: CoreWeave didn’t lose any customers or sales, and it was just that construction hadn’t caught up to its demand. 

A big part of that calm response was due to the Core Scientific relationship being years deep and layered with massive ambitions.

  • The backbone build: Since mid-2024, CoreWeave stacked multiple 12-year hosting contracts on Core Scientific sites, adding nearly 590 MW of high-performance computing capacity across six locations from Denton, Texas, to Dalton, Georgia.
  • The acquisition attempt: In July 2025, CoreWeave offered an eye-catching $9 billion in stockto buy Core Scientific outright, in hopes of securing energy, along with “powered-shell” access.
  • The veto: By October 30, shareholders at Core Scientific said no. The deal didn’t materialize, but the commercial partnership survived.

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