GPU cloud provider CoreWeave has secured $1.1 billion in new funding.
The company announced a Series C funding round this week led by Coatue, with participation from Magnetar who led the last primary round, as well as Altimeter Capital, Fidelity Management & Research Company, and Lykos Global Management.
The company said the money will be used to support growth across all areas of the business, including CoreWeave's expansion into new geographic regions – Europe is mentioned by the company in a recent WSJ article.
The latest funding round reportedly values the company at $19 billion.
"CoreWeave continues to push forward as a provider of critical infrastructure in the development of AI, and the high caliber of investors who continue putting their trust in us validates the enormous opportunity we have to define the next generation of cloud computing," said Mike Intrator, co-founder and CEO of CoreWeave. "CoreWeave is designed specifically to tackle the most complex and pressing challenges in high-performance compute. With this new round, we will continue investing in and working with the largest AI enterprises in the world."
Founded in 2017 and originally focused on crypto and blockchain applications, CoreWeave has been investing heavily in its cloud offering, offering access to GPUs for AI applications.
Late last year, the company announced that it had raised $642 million in a round that valued it at $7 billion. That came after a $221m and a $200m raise earlier that year.
“We believe CoreWeave has emerged as a key leader in building the mission-critical infrastructure foundation required to satisfy society's current and future demand for high performance compute at scale to power the generative AI revolution," said Philippe Laffont, founder & portfolio manager of Coatue. "Since partnering in 2023, we have been impressed by the team's commitment to operational and technical excellence, and we look forward to continuing our partnership as they drive the next phase of growth for the company and industry."
CoreWave currently offers services from three data center regions according to its website; US East in Weehawken, New Jersey; US West in Las Vegas, Nevada; and US Central in Chicago, Illinois.
However, the company has been on a major leasing spree. CoreWeave previously said that it expects to operate 14 data centers by the end of 2023, and a company spokesperson told CNBC that number will be 28 by the end of 2024.
CoreWeave last year announced $1.6bn plans for a data center at a Lincoln Rackhouse-owned site in Plano, Texas, in addition to moving into a Chirisa-owned data center in Chester, Virginia. It is also leasing Flexential data centers in Oregon and Georgia.
TierPoint has signed a long-term agreement with CoreWeave to provide the GPU firm colocation services at one of its data centers, though details weren’t shared.
The company is also a named Digital Realty customer, leasing space for “tens of thousands of GPUS” at an unspecified facility on the US West Coast.
In March the company announced it was leasing 16MW of capacity from cryptominer Core Scientific at its facility in Austin, Texas.
