CoreWeave has raised funds to develop its AI infrastructure
AI startup CoreWeave has sold its minority stake in fundraising. Fidelity and Jane Street were the lead investors. Well-known investment firms such as JPMorgan Asset Management and Zoom Ventures also participated in the deal. During the sale process, the startup was valued at US$7 billion.
CoreWeave is one of the most promising cloud computing projects. Commenting on the deal, Michael Intrator, head of the startup, said that the interest from investors indicates the company’s significant advantage in the AI services market. According to him, this sector is undergoing a period of transformation, and CoreWeave’s AI infrastructure will help companies respond effectively to the changes.
A major investor in the startup is Nvidia Corporation, one of the first to use its graphics chips to manage data centres. CoreWeave, in turn, started acquiring processors when the price of processors was relatively low. This allowed the company to get ahead of market expectations by giving the chips the power to develop AI-based applications.
In August 2023, CoreWeave received a US$2.3 billion loan from several investors, including Blackstone and Magnetar. The funding came in several tranches, with the first funds arriving in April.
The AI startup received the new investment after announcing plans to build a data centre in Texas. The project is worth US$1.6 billion.
CoreWeave said that demand for cloud computing running on graphics chips had far exceeded forecasts. The market was unprepared for such a surge in interest, but the company responded quickly, and its expansion efforts continued to pay off.
CoreWeave business overview
CoreWeave was founded in 2017 by three programmers. Initially, the company focused on cryptocurrency applications, but it later began to expand. The company deals with:
– cloud computing and building the infrastructure for it;
– developing generative artificial intelligence;
– providing data centres and various Nvidia GPUs for training AI models;
– launching its accelerator programme.
In addition, CoreWeave is working on a supercomputing project and providing resources to other companies.
The startup is an excellent alternative to large cloud service providers and offers good opportunities for small and medium-sized enterprises. The company is targeting AI developers who can’t afford to build their own artificial intelligence training infrastructure. Instead, they use CoreWeave’s facilities, which are present in the startup’s 14 data centres.