CoreWeave Spent $9.44B on Capex in One Quarter as Revenue Jumped 168% to $3.66B

NEW YORK, Nov 11 — CoreWeave (Nasdaq: CRWV) reported its third-quarter results on Tuesday night, and the income statement was not where the action was. Revenue jumped 168% to $3.661 billion. The cash flow statement underneath it describes one of the fastest construction programs in corporate America: $9.44 billion of capital spending in a single quarter, funded by customers paying in advance and by $10.3 billion of new debt.

The top line#

Revenue of $3.661 billion rose from $1.365 billion a year earlier and beat both the company's own guidance range of $3.45 billion to $3.6 billion and the roughly $3.55 billion analysts expected (LSEG). Chief executive Michael Intrator called it a breakout quarter, with revenue up more than $1 billion sequentially. Nine-month revenue reached $8.314 billion, up 134% from $3.559 billion. Revenue backlog — contracted business not yet recognized — hit a record $132.5 billion at September 30, up from about $104 billion at June 30. Adjusted EBITDA was $2.256 billion, a 62% margin.

Where the cash came from: operations#

Operations generated $1.975 billion of cash in the quarter, up 17% from $1.689 billion a year earlier. Over nine months, operating cash flow reached $5.638 billion, up 276% from $1.499 billion.

The engine is customers paying ahead of delivery. Deferred revenue added $2.127 billion of cash in the third quarter alone and $3.492 billion over nine months; the deferred revenue balance ended the quarter at about $10.0 billion. Intrator said the company expects approximately $9 billion in customer prepayments and deposits in the next three months alone.

The GAAP net loss of $709 million barely touches the cash line, because the biggest costs are non-cash: depreciation and amortization added back $1.889 billion (three times the $630 million of a year ago), stock-based compensation $160 million and non-cash lease expense $278 million. The drag ran the other way — accounts receivable absorbed $1.741 billion in the quarter as revenue was booked faster than customers paid, leaving a receivables balance of $4.28 billion. Net effect: operations covered roughly a fifth of the quarter's capital spending.

Where the cash went: the investing breakdown#

Purchases of property and equipment, including capitalized internal-use software, took $9.441 billion of the $9.836 billion total investing outflow — 96 cents of every investing dollar went into data centers and the machines inside them (in millions):

Investing activities	Q3 2026	Q3 2025	Nine months 2026	Nine months 2025
Property and equipment purchases	(9,441)	(3,279)	(23,558)	(6,249)
Investments in unconsolidated joint ventures and variable interest entities	(410)	(1)	(960)	(33)
Strategic investments	(35)	(2)	(173)	(2)
Marketable securities, net	7	(47)	25	(18)
Other investing, net	43	(31)	(44)	(43)
Net cash used in investing activities	(9,836)	(3,360)	(24,710)	(6,345)

How fast is the build growing?

• Third-quarter capex of $9.441 billion was up 188% from $3.279 billion a year earlier — more spent in one quarter than in the entire first nine months of 2025 ($6.249 billion).
• Nine-month capex of $23.558 billion is 3.8 times the year-ago pace.
• Capex ran at 258% of the quarter's revenue — about $103 million a day, every day, for 92 days.
• What it bought: more than 200 megawatts of active power added in the quarter, taking the total past 1.7 gigawatts, double the footprint at the start of the year. Contracted power grew past 4.6 gigawatts. Property and equipment on the balance sheet reached $56.78 billion, up from $30.56 billion at the end of 2025.
• Management raised full-year 2026 capex guidance to $37 billion to $39 billion, lifting the low end from $35 billion because infrastructure is being deployed sooner than planned. Against $23.56 billion already spent, the guide implies another $13.4 billion to $15.4 billion of spending in the fourth quarter alone.

Free cash flow — operating cash flow minus capex — was negative $7.466 billion for the quarter and negative $17.92 billion for the nine months. That gap is the model at this stage: build ahead of contracted demand, and let the backlog convert.

How the build was funded: financing#

Lenders supplied the difference. CoreWeave issued $10.301 billion of debt in the quarter, including the $4.2 billion offering of 2.875% convertible senior notes due 2033 that closed on September 22 and the $2.6 billion DDTL 5.5 facility, its first facility designed for shorter-duration contracts. It repaid $2.344 billion and spent $566 million on capped calls tied to the convertible notes, for a net financing inflow of $7.361 billion.

Across nine months the company issued $27.048 billion of debt and repaid $7.563 billion — net new borrowing of $19.485 billion — alongside $2.982 billion raised from common stock private placements. Total financing inflow was $21.346 billion. Cash, including restricted cash, ended the quarter at $6.404 billion ($4.122 billion unrestricted), down $500 million in the quarter after funding the build.

Total debt on the balance sheet reached $46.87 billion — $41.60 billion recourse and $5.27 billion non-recourse — up from $21.37 billion at the end of 2025. Set against it, the $132.5 billion backlog is about 2.8 times the entire debt stack. The carrying cost is real: interest expense was $846 million in the quarter, and the company guided fourth-quarter interest expense to $1.05 billion to $1.15 billion. Management told Reuters it does not plan to tap unsecured debt markets after the recent spike in borrowing costs, saying cash flow from existing contracts would cover current and future debt repayments, and guided to profitability on an adjusted basis in the first half of 2028.

The market verdict#

Investors took the growth side of the ledger. CoreWeave shares closed Wednesday up 24.7% at $60.77, and the results lifted the wider AI cloud group, with Nebius, Iren, Oracle and Applied Digital all climbing (Reuters). The full-year revenue guide was raised to $13.0 billion to $13.3 billion, which implies fourth-quarter revenue of $4.69 billion to $4.99 billion, and the company now expects to exit 2026 at an annualized run-rate revenue of $20 billion to $21 billion.

Sources#

• CoreWeave, Inc., "CoreWeave Reports Strong Third Quarter 2026 Results," Business Wire, November 10, 2026 — the same release furnished as Exhibit 99.1 to the company's Form 8-K filed with the SEC. All cash flow, balance sheet and guidance figures above are from this release: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261110351463/en/CoreWeave-Reports-Strong-Third-Quarter-2026-Results
• Reuters, "CoreWeave sparks AI cloud stock rally, lifts Nvidia as results ease bubble fears," November 11, 2026: https://www.reuters.com/world/china/coreweave-sparks-ai-cloud-stock-rally-lifts-nvidia-results-ease-bubble-fears-2026-11-11/