CoreWeave falls 15.5% as bond yield nears 15% and funding concerns mount
Key Facts
CoreWeave shares fell 15.5% by the close of trading on October 14, 2026, according to the Associated Press, amid concerns over the cost of financing the expansion of artificial intelligence infrastructure. The news agency said the stock posted its worst day since February. The session's losses extended to Oracle, which fell 8.8%, as AI infrastructure companies faced funding pressures. The Associated Press said rising bond yields increase the cost of borrowing needed to build data centers. CoreWeave's losses had reached 13% in an intraday snapshot reported by Investing.com before widening at the close.
In the debt market, the yield on CoreWeave's unsecured bonds due in 2032 approached 15%, according to an Investing.com report published on the day of the selloff. Chamath Palihapitiya highlighted the rise in yields, drawing a brief comment from Elon Musk on X. Musk replied with a word that can be translated as "Yikes," commenting on the pressure on the company's bonds. As the stock fell, Chief Executive Mike Intrator sent a memo to employees, according to the same website. He said "the market is misunderstanding and acting irrationally," defending the company against the selloff.
CoreWeave's total debt stood at about $35.6 billion at the end of June, according to its quarterly filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The company also reported operating lease obligations of $16.3 billion at the end of the same period. In the filing, it attributed the increase in net interest expense to higher borrowing levels and total debt obligations. CoreWeave had raised its annual capital expenditure forecast by $4 billion in August, according to Reuters. The upper end of its revised forecast reached $39 billion for 2026, as the company faces rising bond yields and borrowing costs.
Funding sources CoreWeave announced among its quarterly milestones included a $3.1 billion term loan, according to its second-quarter earnings release. The company said the loan was backed by high-performance computing infrastructure, among the financing arrangements outlined in the earnings announcement. It also announced a $1 billion strategic investment from Jane Street alongside the loan financing. On infrastructure operations, the company's active power capacity reached 1.5 gigawatts in the reported quarterly results. Total contracted power capacity stood at about 3.7 gigawatts, according to the same release, exceeding the capacity in operation.
On contracted business, CoreWeave announced that its revenue backlog stood at about $104 billion at the end of June. That backlog excluded net new customer commitments added at the start of the following quarter, according to the earnings release. The company said those new commitments exceeded $25 billion, in addition to the backlog reported at the end of the second quarter. Intrator described the business trajectory in the earnings announcement by saying "customer demand is accelerating." The chief executive's remarks at the time formed part of the company's presentation of its quarterly results, which included expanding operating capacity, new financing and the size of its revenue backlog.
On October 15, Jensen Huang defended CoreWeave at an event in Stockholm, saying its "financial strength is improving every day," according to Reuters. By contrast, D.A. Davidson analyst Gil Luria warned that CoreWeave's equity value could be wiped out if the AI investment cycle reverses. Luria tied his warning to that scenario, saying "the equity value will go to zero," according to Investing.com. A report by the website on the same day pointed to upcoming earnings from cloud computing giants as the next milestone for tracking AI spending. Wedbush's Dan Ives said the forthcoming results could reaffirm the sector's capital spending trajectory.