CoreWeave Guides $31-$35B Capex for 2026: Fuel or Financial Strain?

As CoreWeave, Inc. CRWV expands at a breakneck speed, it also reflects dramatically accelerated investments to keep up with AI demand. 2026 capital expenditures are projected to be between $31 billion and $35 billion, reflecting the scale of its AI infrastructure ambitions. Notably, the company raised the lower end of its guidance range primarily due to component pricing.CoreWeave’s capex is largely backed by strong visibility into demand. Contracted revenue backlog reached $99.4 billion at the end of the first quarter of 2026. Management noted that roughly 36% of the backlog is expected to be recognized within the next two years, while roughly 75% will convert into revenues over the next four years.To support these long-term commitments, CoreWeave is rapidly expanding its infrastructure footprint. The company has already surpassed 1 gigawatt of active power and expanded contracted power to more than 3.5 gigawatts.To fund expansion, CoreWeave has secured more than $20 billion in debt and equity capital financing year-to-date (as highlighted on the last earnings call), improving its access to capital while lowering the cost of debt.Image Source: Zacks Investment ResearchWhether this aggressive capex spend proves to be a growth driver or a massive risk will depend on CoreWeave’s execution, which does not look easy. In addition to higher pricing, supply-chain troubles could impact execution.Challenges for CRWV remain significant amid intense competition from rivals such as pure-play Nebius Group N.V. NBIS and tech behemoths like Microsoft, Amazon AMZN, and others, which are also aggressively ramping up capacity.Capex Plans for Other Players in the AI Infra SpaceAmazon’s capex spending is enormous. The company spent $43.2 billion in capex in the first quarter of 2026, primarily toward Amazon Web Services (“AWS”) and generative AI investments. The company emphasized that it will be making “significant investments, especially in AI,” citing strong demand.The company typically invests in land power, chips, servers and networking gear six to 24 months before monetization begins, ensuring sufficient capacity is available as workloads scale. However, increasing capital intensity is likely to impact cash flow and profitability in the near term, which can impact investor sentiment.Nebius is another rapidly growing AI infrastructure company. As it doubles down on AI infrastructure, NBIS has now set an ambitious $20-$25 billion capex plan for 2026, up from the prior $16-$20 billion range.Management noted that the capacity deployment is tied to visibility into future demand, particularly for 2027, for which it already has customer commitments in place. The company also noted that it is already selling out the available capacity, with demand consistently exceeding supply, implying that spending is less speculative and more about meeting anticipated workloads. Importantly, management highlighted that component cost increases account for a low single-digit percentage of total spend.CRWV Price Performance, Valuation and EstimatesShares of CoreWeave have surge 15.4% over the past month compared with the Internet Software industry’s growth of 2.5%.Image Source: Zacks Investment ResearchIn terms of forward price/sales multiple, CRWV’s shares are trading at 2.97X, lower than the Internet Software industry’s ratio of 3.74X.  Image Source: Zacks Investment ResearchThe Zacks Consensus Estimate for CRWV’s earnings for 2026 has been revised downward over the past 60 days.Image Source: Zacks Investment ResearchCRWV currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.Radical New Technology Could Hand Investors Huge GainsQuantum Computing is the next technological revolution, and it could be even more advanced than AI.While some believed the technology was years away, it is already present and moving fast. Large hyperscalers, such as Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Oracle, and even Meta and Tesla, are scrambling to integrate quantum computing into their infrastructure.Senior Stock Strategist Kevin Cook reveals 7 carefully selected stocks poised to dominate the quantum computing landscape in his report, Beyond AI: The Quantum Leap in Computing Power.Kevin was among the early experts who recognized NVIDIA's enormous potential back in 2016. Now, he has keyed in on what could be "the next big thing" in quantum computing supremacy. Today, you have a rare chance to position your portfolio at the forefront of this opportunity.See Top Quantum Stocks Now >>This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).Zacks Investment ResearchWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks