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Luke Kawa
8/12/25

CoreWeave delivers top- and bottom-line beat in Q2

CoreWeave gave back all of the day’s big gains, and then some, after-hours even as the AI cloud company delivered better-than-expected second-quarter results.

  • Revenue: $1.21 billion (estimated $1.08 billion, guidance of $1.06 billion to $1.1 billion).

  • Adjusted operating income: $199.8 million (estimated $162.75 million, guidance of $140 million to $170 million)

The company also saw its massive backlog swell to $30.1 billion from $25.9 billion at the end of Q1.

Still, shares were down 7.2% after the report. The stock had climbed 6.4% during the regular session.

“We are scaling rapidly as we look to meet the unprecedented demand for AI,” said cofounder, chairman, and CEO Michael Intrator. “Our purpose-built AI cloud platform continues to set new benchmarks for performance and scalability including becoming the first company to offer the complete Blackwell GPU portfolio at scale, making CoreWeave the platform of choice for the world’s most advanced AI workloads and AI pioneers.”

CoreWeave’s earnings report promises to be a catalyst for the stock beyond the actual numbers: the lockup period for 84% of its shares expires at the close of trading two days after this announcement (that is, August 14).

The stock is up more than 250% from its IPO through Tuesday’s close, and the low float constraining supply for the AI darling has been a contributor to its stellar run.

(Nvidia has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of this performance, as its position in CoreWeave stock is up more than $2.5 billion from the end of Q1 through today.)

Beyond the potential for some profit-taking by large early holders, the cost of borrowing CoreWeave to sell short is also likely to decline as a huge chunk of the shares becomes unlocked.

We’ll stay tuned for any color on the conference call surrounding CoreWeave’s all-stock deal to buy Core Scientific amid reports that major shareholders of the latter are unhappy with the terms of the arrangement.

Shares of CoreWeave are down about 10% since the deal was announced in early July.

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Planet Labs slips after big post-earnings gain

Smallish midcap satellite imagery and data company Planet Labs is giving back a chunk of the nearly 50% gain it racked up after posting earnings early Monday.

No tears, though: the shares, which seem to have a fairly robust retail following, are still up roughly 340% over the past 12 months.

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CoreWeave soars as Microsoft’s deal with Nebius shows unrelenting demand for AI compute

CoreWeave is soaring as Microsoft’s $17.4 billion deal with Nebius shows the immense value and continued demand for all parts of the AI data center ecosystem.

One additional reason for CoreWeave’s jump may be that its pending acquisition of AI data center infrastructure company Core Scientific looks like a great deal compared to Microsoft’s renting of (more broad and advanced) AI data center capacity from Nebius.

CoreWeave’s all-stock deal to buy Core Scientific was initially valued at ~$9 billion, but with the subsequent decline in its shares, it’s worth about 40% less. And in purchasing Core Scientific, CoreWeave is saving $10 billion in what it would have paid the company to lease data center infrastructure over the next 12 years.

As it stands, Microsoft is getting about 300 megawatts in data center power capacity from Nebius, while Core Scientific boasts that its footprint is in excess of 1,300 megawatts. So, on the surface, it looks like an absolute steal for CoreWeave.

But again, this is not an apples-to-apples comparison; not all access to AI computing infrastructure is created equal.

There are differences in the type of AI infrastructure provided by the two: Nebius owns GPUs, while Core Scientific doesn’t, and what it provides in the software layer isn’t offered by Core Scientific as a stand-alone entity. This is the difference between the “full stack” approach (Nebius) and a “colocation” approach (Core Scientific).

That being said, CoreWeave’s acquisition of Core Scientific, once completed, will make the combined entity’s business model look more like Nebius’ model, which, as Microsoft just told us, is something that top hyperscalers are willing to pay a pretty penny for.

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UNH rises after preliminary data shows most Medicare Advantage enrollees will be on more lucrative, top-rated plans

UnitedHealth rose more than 4% in premarket trading on Tuesday after the company disclosed that it expects the majority of its Medicare Advantage enrollees will be on plans rated four stars or higher in 2026.

Though the data is only preliminary, about 78% of UNH’s Medicare Advantage members are in plans rated four stars or higher, the company said in a regulatory filing Tuesday morning. On Monday, the company said it plans to reiterate its full-year guidance when it meets with investors this week.

Insurance companies that provide government-sponsored plans, like Medicare Advantage, have struggled this year amid unexpected rising costs. Plans that are rated four stars or higher earn bonus payments and are typically more lucrative for healthcare insurance providers.

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Retail darling Planet Labs soars on earnings pop for second straight quarter

Planet Labs, which operates a network of satellites that record data, images, and information about the Earth, surged more than 40% after reporting better-than-expected quarterly numbers before the open of trading Monday.

It was the second straight quarter when the money-losing company’s quarterly update generated a massive market reaction. The stock jumped nearly 50% after numbers came out in June.

The company, which went public via SPAC in 2021, raised its full-year revenue guidance and notched its second straight quarter of positive free cash flow. Analysts and investors watch free cash flow closely as it can signal when a company’s business is starting to become more durable.

While the company is small — roughly $2.5 billion in market cap — it has posted pretty serious gains, rising almost 300% the past 12 months. Planet Labs also appears to have a fairly large retail shareholder base.

Just 57% of its float is in the the hands of institutional investors, according to FactSet data. That’s roughly the same as other retail favorites such as Palantir, though Planet Labs is no where near as highly valued as the defense data and AI software company led by CEO Alex Karp.

The company, which went public via SPAC in 2021, raised its full-year revenue guidance and notched its second straight quarter of positive free cash flow. Analysts and investors watch free cash flow closely as it can signal when a company’s business is starting to become more durable.

While the company is small — roughly $2.5 billion in market cap — it has posted pretty serious gains, rising almost 300% the past 12 months. Planet Labs also appears to have a fairly large retail shareholder base.

Just 57% of its float is in the the hands of institutional investors, according to FactSet data. That’s roughly the same as other retail favorites such as Palantir, though Planet Labs is no where near as highly valued as the defense data and AI software company led by CEO Alex Karp.

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