Many market strategists have predicted a revival in initial public offerings (IPO) after a sluggish market over the last few years. While it still could take some time for the IPO market to thaw and the floodgates open, especially after recent turbulence in the market, more private companies are starting to emerge.
One recent company that announced plans to go public is the artificial intelligence infrastructure firm Coreweave (CRWV). Coreweave is reportedly seeking to raise $4 billion, which would value the company at $35 billion, making it one of the larger IPOs in recent years. Given how successful AI stocks have been, the company is likely to draw a lot of interest and is definitely one of the most eagerly anticipated IPOs in 2025. Here are three things you should know.
Interestingly, Coreweave started as an infrastructure play targeting crypto miners. The company previously used data centers in New Jersey to mine Ethereum when the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency used the energy-intensive proof-of-work mining system that required lots of computing power to mint new blocks of Ethereum and collect the associated rewards. However, when crypto crashed in 2018, Coreweave pivoted and now provides data centers made for supporting generative AI workloads.
Coreweave’s data centers provide Nvidia‘s latest graphics processing units (GPU), liquid cooling capabilities, storage optimized for AI, and robust security. The company essentially provides infrastructure-as-a-service for companies looking to develop and roll out AI solutions and capabilities. Without Coreweave, many companies would be faced with building their own infrastructure, which is a significant undertaking and capital investment. At the end of 2024, Coreweave ran 32 data centers operating more than 250,000 GPUs.
When popular tech and AI companies go public, you’ll often notice that most are losing money and really don’t have the best-looking set of financials, other than the promise of massive growth that will eventually turn into profits down the line. Coreweave is still not profitable and reported a loss of over $863 million in 2024.
However, the company had roughly $863 million of depreciation and amortization during the year, which makes the financials look much better on an operating basis. Coreweave reported operating income of over $324 million in 2024, a tremendous improvement from a $14.5 million operating loss in 2023. Meanwhile, revenue exploded roughly 740% in 2024.
