In this photo illustration, a Core Weave logo is displayed on a smartphone with stock market percentages on the background.
- CoreWeave's valuation has jumped to $19 billion from $7 billion months ago, a person familiar with the matter said.
- The startup wants to set up data center infrastructure in more locations throughout the world as it looks to compete with some of the largest technology companies.
CoreWeave, a cloud infrastructure startup that rents out graphics processing units to companies, said Wednesday that it has raised $1.1 billion in funding.
The new investment values the company at $19 billion, up from $7 billion months ago, a person familiar with the matter said.
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The fast rise reflects the demand for the underlying resources that CoreWeave provides. Nvidia, the chief supplier of GPUs for training and running artificial intelligence models, has been working to address a supply shortage.
On Tuesday, server maker Super Micro Computer said sales would have been higher if not for the low supply of a key component. And during its earnings call on April 25, Microsoft said the company wasn't able to meet demand for AI cloud services.
CoreWeave, for its part, has been growing quickly. The New Jersey-based company has been supplying Microsoft, CNBC reported in June 2023. Paris-based AI startup Mistral has also used CoreWeave's GPUs.
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Nvidia is a CoreWeave investor. So are Coatue, Magnetar, Altimeter Capital, Fidelity and Lykos Global Management, according to a statement. The startup said the new capital will help it set up infrastructure in more places around the world.
But it's going against some of the largest companies, including Amazon and Google, which both provide cloud services from centers distributed in many countries.
For now, CoreWeave only has three regions of data center infrastructure, all in the U.S. The company plans to have 28 data centers by the end of this year, up from 14 currently, a spokesperson said.
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