CoreWeave collapse sparks fears of cracks in AI infrastructure boom

CoreWeave (CRWV) has seen its share price fall more than 60% from its June record amid growing concerns that the AI infrastructure boom may have peaked.

New details reported Tuesday by the Wall Street Journal highlight how fragile the buildout has become as operational delays collide with heavy leverage and tightening credit conditions.

Investors are increasingly focused on two core risks with CRWV, according to the story. First, the company relies heavily on high interest debt to finance purchases of advanced AI chips from NVIDIA (NVDA). Second, the company depends on a small number of large customers, including OpenAI, Microsoft (MSFT) and Meta (META), for the majority of its revenue.

Some of CoreWeave’s problems stemmed from a basic construction setback, the story continued. Heavy rainstorms in North Texas delayed concrete pours at a major data center site, pushing back delivery timelines for computing capacity. Which shows even routine infrastructure bottlenecks can disrupt trillion dollar AI investment plans.

Investor confidence weakened further in late October when CoreWeave’s proposed $9 billion acquisition of Core Scientific collapsed. Core Scientific (CORZ), a former bitcoin miner turned data center landlord, rejected the deal after shareholders warned it would expose them to CoreWeave’s volatile share price and leveraged balance sheet.

Shares of Oracle (ORCL) and Broadcom (AVGO) have fallen by double digit percentages in the past week after recent third quarter earnings, both companies flagging slower timing for AI related spending.

The crypto and AI mining spillover has occurred as a result of new diversified revenues for bitcoin miners. IREN (IREN) and Cipher Mining (CIFR) have pivoted toward AI focused on high performance computing, signing customers including Microsoft. Each had previously surged over 500% this year, but both are down about 50% in recent weeks.. Another cause for concern, meanwhile, is that the bitcoin mining sector is increasingly relying on debt to fund expansion.

CoreWeave shares have fallen a further 4% on Tuesday, trading below $70 for the first time since May.