CoreWeave, OpenAI clinch deal worth up to $11.9B

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New Jersey-based AI hyperscaler CoreWeave continues its remarkable momentum, announcing a deal March 10 to deliver AI infrastructure to OpenAI.

The strategic agreement – valued at up to $11.9 billion – will leverage CoreWeave’s leading Cloud Platform to expand OpenAI’s compute capacity for training. Additionally, it will deliver the company’s latest models at scale to hundreds of millions of users worldwide.

In a press release, CoreWeave co-founder and CEO Michael Intrator said that partnering with OpenAI on this net new contract underscores the company’s proven ability to deliver reliable and performant infrastructure services – powering AI innovations for world-leading AI labs.

“We remain a partner-of-choice to meet the bleeding-edge needs of pioneers to unleash AI’s potential to change the world,” said Intrator.

Under the agreement, OpenAI will become an investor in CoreWeave through the issuance of $350 million of stock.

“Advanced AI systems require reliable compute, and we’re excited to continue scaling with CoreWeave so we can train even more powerful models and offer great services to even more users,” said Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI. “CoreWeave is an important addition to OpenAI’s infrastructure portfolio, complementing our commercial deals with Microsoft and Oracle – and our joint venture with Softbank on Stargate.”

The announcement also marks the latest notable development for CoreWeave.

Just last week, the company moved a step closer toward a potential initial public offering. CoreWeave filed a registration statement March 3 on Form S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission relating to a proposed IPO of shares of its Class A common stock.

The company said neither the number of shares slated to be offered nor price range have been determined yet. CoreWeave also applied for listing on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol “CRWV.”

Key particulars of the IPO include:

• Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs & Co. will serve as joint lead bookrunners for the proposed offering
• Barclays, Citigroup Inc., MUFG, Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., Jefferies Group LLC, Mizuho Financial Group Inc., Wells Fargo Securities LLC and BofA Securities Inc. will serve as joint bookrunners
• Guggenheim Securities, Needham & Co., and Galaxy Digital Partners LLC will serve as co-managers for the proposed offering
• The proposed offering will be available only by means of a prospectus

These major developments follow several others. In January, CoreWeave joined the NJ AI Hub. It also closed a $650 million investment round in November. Additionally, the company signed a long-term lease in October for the entirety of 11 NEST at the Northeast Science & Technology Center in Kenilworth. That agreement includes plans to invest $1.2 billion into a new data center at the property.

“We are incredibly excited to open a next-generation data center in CoreWeave’s home state of New Jersey,” said Intrator in October. “Gov. Phil Murphy’s efforts have helped spur the creation of an AI ecosystem in the state – and CoreWeave’s announcement today underscores that New Jersey is open for AI business.”