Listed for three months, the stock price has nearly tripled! "NVIDIA's favored child" CoreWeave has become the "leader of this round of AI"

From an inconspicuous IPO to a threefold increase in market value, CoreWeave's stock price has soared.

On Tuesday, the cloud computing service provider supported by NVIDIA, CoreWeave's stock price reached a historic high of $150.48, up over 25%, with the company's stock price skyrocketing 248% since its IPO.

AI Computing Business Expands Rapidly, Capital Expenditure Expected to Surge

CoreWeave's core business is processing artificial intelligence workloads based on NVIDIA chips, with its data centers designed from scratch and optimized for AI computing. The latest leasing agreement with Applied Digital further consolidates its layout in 33 AI data centers across the United States and Europe.

As a strategic partner of NVIDIA, CoreWeave not only benefits from its technical support but also attracts Microsoft as its largest customer, along with a five-year, $11.9 billion long-term collaboration with OpenAI.

By 2025, the company expects capital expenditures to surge by 53% to $21.5 billion, highlighting its ambition for AI infrastructure expansion.

Retail Investors Celebrate, Wall Street Remains Skeptical

In just two months, CoreWeave's market value has skyrocketed from $23 billion at the IPO to an astonishing $72 billion, with the issue price rising from $40 to the current $150.48.

Especially since the strong earnings report released on May 15, the company has become one of the top two stocks by trading volume on the trading platform Public.com, with retail investors' bets on call options being four times that of put options.

However, this retail-driven frenzy has not won the applause of Wall Street.

CoreWeave was not well-received at the beginning of its IPO, with Wall Street expressing doubts about its high debt, customer concentration, and management's cash-out behavior.

This led investment banks to reduce the issuance scale before the IPO and allocate shares primarily to existing investors like Nvidia and Fidelity, creating a "moat" to prevent a stock price collapse.

Currently, according to financial data company S3 Partners, about 30% of the tradable shares have been shorted, indicating that institutional investors generally have a bearish outlook on its valuation.

Matthew Unterman of S3 Partners pointed out that due to the sustained high demand for shorting and limited float, the cost of borrowing shares continues to rise, making shorting CoreWeave an expensive gamble.

Given the current stock price trend, shorting CoreWeave has proven to be a very poor decision.

Unique Shareholding Structure, Huge Capital Operation Space

CoreWeave's main shareholders include Magnetar Capital, its largest supplier and customer NVIDIA, customer OpenAI, and long-term investors like Fidelity These investors, along with the company's three co-founders, collectively hold over 60% of the circulating shares, and this concentrated shareholding structure may become an important support for stock price stability.

Analysts believe that the surge in stock price provides CoreWeave with more room for capital operations.

In addition, the company's co-founders have already cashed out $500 million in the IPO, which may reduce short-term selling pressure. Analysts at MoffettNathanson wrote in a report to clients last week:

"The high stock price gives CoreWeave the opportunity to create value through equity financing or mergers and acquisitions, which seems to be a clear possibility."

As the regular stock sale restrictions post-IPO will end this summer, executives, employees, and existing investors will be able to sell more shares at that time. However, given the company's strong financial performance and market demand, many analysts remain cautiously optimistic about its prospects