CoreWeave’s net interest expense hits $640 million in Q2 as obligations expand
Key Facts
CoreWeave shares closed at $54.24 on October 23, 2026, down 2.46% for the session, after falling 10.06% the previous day to $55.60. According to historical price data from Investing.com, the stock had closed at $61.12 on October 19. The decline over these sessions coincided with financial indicators showing the company’s business expanding and its financing costs rising, though the data do not establish that interest expense was the direct cause of the stock’s move. Net interest expense was $640 million in the second quarter of 2026, compared with $267 million in the same quarter a year earlier, an annual increase of 140%. The company attributed the higher expense to increased borrowings and total debt obligations, according to its quarterly filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Interest expense rose in a quarter in which CoreWeave reported revenue of $2.575 billion, compared with $1.212 billion in the second quarter of 2025. But the company swung from operating income of $19 million in the year-earlier period to an operating loss of $49 million in the second quarter of 2026. Net loss was $626 million, compared with $290 million a year earlier. The results put revenue growth alongside weakening operating metrics and a widening net loss, underscoring the company’s challenge in turning rising demand into financial performance that covers expansion and financing costs. Chief Executive Michael Intrator said the company’s scale was beginning to show in operating leverage, adding: "Our scale is beginning to translate into improved operating leverage, and customer demand is accelerating as enterprises expand their adoption of our services."
The company’s total debt stood at $35.6 billion on June 30, 2026, while operating lease obligations totaled $16.3 billion. Alongside debt, lease obligations represent a financial burden tied to operating infrastructure, while expanding computing capacity requires ongoing funding. In the first half of 2026, net interest expense increased by $645 million, or 121%, compared with the first half of 2025. The company told the SEC that the increase was primarily due to higher borrowing levels and total debt obligations. This trend shows that the increase in expense was not limited to a comparison between two quarters, but also extended to the first-half total.
CoreWeave, meanwhile, said its contracted revenue backlog was about $104 billion on June 30, 2026. That did not include more than $25 billion in new customer commitments added at the start of the third quarter. The company said contracted power capacity had risen to about 4.2 gigawatts on August 11, from about 3.7 gigawatts at the end of June. These figures reflect expanding commercial commitments and the power needed to deliver computing services, but remain contractual indicators distinct from the revenue the company actually recorded in the second quarter. The gap between contracted backlog and realized revenue puts the pace of converting contracted capacity into operations and revenue at the center of investors’ scrutiny of the company’s performance.
The company said some short-term capacity contracts it entered into in the third quarter run for about three to six months. It estimated their pricing at about $40 million per megawatt, based on annualized revenue divided by the power required to operate the clusters. The pricing offers a disclosed indicator of the value of new contracts, while their short duration means renewals and sustained demand remain part of the business outlook. CoreWeave had linked the addition of new customer commitments to an increase in contracted power capacity, as it reported debt of $35.6 billion and operating lease obligations of $16.3 billion at the end of June. The next quarterly results will provide the next opportunity to gauge how these contracts and new capacity are reflected in revenue, alongside the trajectory of interest expense and losses.