OpenAI Secures Near-$12 Billion CoreWeave Deal, Taking Stake In Cloud Firm Ahead Of $35 Billion IPO To Reportedly Reduce Microsoft Dependence

OpenAI has signed an $11.9 billion contract with CoreWeave and will acquire a $350 million equity stake in the cloud computing provider, strengthening the company ahead of its expected $35 billion initial public offering.

What Happened: The agreement enables OpenAI to reduce its reliance on Microsoft Corp. MSFT for the computing power required to train and operate its AI models, reported Financial Times, citing sources.

“Partnering with OpenAI on this net new contract underscores CoreWeave’s proven ability to deliver reliable and performant infrastructure services, powering AI Innovations for world-leading AI labs,” said Michael Intrator, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of CoreWeave.

CoreWeave has emerged as a specialized “AI Hyperscaler,” operating over 250,000 of NVIDIA Corp.‘s NVDA AI GPUs across 32 data centers. The company’s revenue surged 737% to $1.9 billion in 2024, though it reported an $863 million net loss.

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Why It Matters: The deal represents OpenAI’s latest effort to secure and diversify its computing infrastructure. CEO Sam Altman has emphasized that infrastructure will be crucial in the competition to build advanced AI models, even as Microsoft’s Satya Nadella has voiced concerns about an “overbuild” of computing capacity.

CoreWeave, founded in 2017 as a cryptocurrency mining operation, pivoted to offering cloud services for AI model development. The company recently acquired Weights & Biases, a prominent AI development platform used by companies including OpenAI and Meta Platforms Inc. META.

The transaction strengthens CoreWeave’s position as a comprehensive platform for AI development while helping OpenAI reduce its dependence on Microsoft. CoreWeave plans to list on the Nasdaq under the ticker “CRWV” with Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. underwriting the offering.

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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.