Key Points
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CoreWeave has more than 1 gigawatt of active power, which has helped it sign long-term, lucrative deals with tech giants.
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The path to 8 gigawatts is filled with financial roadblocks and tightening margins.
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CoreWeave rents most of its AI data center capacity, which can worsen current profitability issues when they have to be renewed.
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Power is a major constraint in the artificial intelligence (AI) build-out, and CoreWeave (NASDAQ: CRWV) is positioned at the center of it. The company has more than 1 gigawatt of active power and is aiming for more than 8 gigawatts by 2030.
Gigawatts have become highly lucrative, with tech giants eager to sign long-term deals for this type of AI infrastructure. Just as AI chips and memory chips produced trillion-dollar stocks in the blink of an eye, power constraints can do the same, and CoreWeave is well-positioned for that scenario.
However, a $1 trillion valuation would require CoreWeave to more than 20x from current levels. How realistic is that, actually? Here’s what investors should know when assessing whether CoreWeave can become a $1 trillion company.
Dissecting the 8-gigawatt target
If CoreWeave can reach its 8-gigawatt target by 2030, it has a real shot at becoming a $1 trillion company. However, that’s a major “if,” and it also assumes CoreWeave increasingly shifts away from renting data center space and owns a higher percentage of its gigawatts.
Here’s the good part about the math: Since it costs $60 billion to build a 1-gigawatt data center, having 8 gigawatts of data center capacity translates into $480 billion in value. That doesn’t include property appreciation or hyperscaler deals.
CoreWeave already has a 3.5-gigawatt pipeline, so it’s feasible for the company to expand this pipeline to 8 gigawatts by 2030. CoreWeave has had no issue with signing new deals with hyperscalers. The company signed new long-term deals with Meta Platforms, including a $21 billion expanded AI infrastructure agreement that stretches through December 2032. The total number of megawatts involved in the deal was not disclosed.
The financial realities of building a multi-gigawatt portfolio
There is enough demand for an 8-gigawatt portfolio to build a $1 trillion company if all those gigawatts had multiyear contracts and were ready to go. However, CoreWeave may be strained significantly by financial realities on the path to its 8-gigawatt target.
The first financial reality is that it costs $60 billion to build a 1-gigawatt AI data center. How will CoreWeave raise enough money to build the necessary data centers to close its 4.5-gigawatt gap? Financing, tax incentives, and energy deals can help. CoreWeave also needs to fully power its remaining pipeline and reach a deal with hyperscalers for it.
The second financial reality is that CoreWeave will face higher costs from its landlords, which could further hurt margins. The company is already burning through cash, and while competitors like Nebius and Iren can substantially improve margins in the future by owning the land, power, and other resources, CoreWeave’s business model does not provide that flexibility.
Landlords will raise prices on CoreWeave, especially as it locks in lucrative long-term deals with tech giants. CoreWeave more than doubled its revenue year over year in Q1 2026, but its net losses also more than doubled in that time frame. That type of business is not sustainable, especially as costs are set to increase significantly.
Look for the pivot to owned power
CoreWeave is in the right industry at the right time, but there are better trades for investors who want to multiply their money. Nebius and Iren have much better chances of reaching $1 trillion valuations because they own the power, data centers, and other resources.
CoreWeave’s business model is very similar to WeWork, a company that filed for bankruptcy a few years after reaching a $47 billion valuation. WeWork aggressively committed to long-term leases for office space and rented it to various companies, hoping to profit under an arbitrage model. CoreWeave has the same business model, except its business revolves around AI data center capacity rather than office space.
CoreWeave isn’t likely to suffer the same fate. Demand for commercial office space collapsed during the pandemic and never truly recovered, which crushed WeWork’s business model. CoreWeave is at the center of an industry with insatiable demand.
While a collapse is unlikely, CoreWeave is guaranteed to face margin pressure if it relies heavily on renting AI data center capacity and selling it to customers. CoreWeave owns its AI chips, which helps a little.
Investors should monitor any developments around CoreWeave shifting to own its AI data centers in the future instead of signing leases. If the company can get debt financing on good terms and continue to sign good deals, it could reach a $1 trillion valuation. However, you might get more from your money with other neocloud stocks.
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Marc Guberti has positions in Iren. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Meta Platforms. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
