CoreWeave is a cloud infrastructure platform based in Roseland, New Jersey, which hopes to achieve a valuation of over $35 billion in its US IPO, according to sources close to the matter quoted by Reuters. The deal is expected to take place in the second quarter of 2025, subject to market conditions.

This IPO comes at a time of unprecedented enthusiasm for generative artificial intelligence. Boosted by major players such as Nvidia and the tech giants, worldwide demand for infrastructures such as data centers and high-performance servers is exploding. CoreWeave is positioning itself as a key player in this revolution, offering access to data centers powered by specialized chips, notably those of its main partner, Nvidia.

Competing with Microsoft... but not only!

The company competes directly with cloud computing heavyweights such as Microsoft' s Azure and Amazon's AWS, but stands out for its specialized AI workload offering. Paradoxically, Microsoft Azure is rumored to be CoreWeave's biggest customer. The two companies signed a wide-ranging partnership in 2023, and the Redmond giant has reportedly earmarked a whopping $10 billion by the end of the decade to lease capacity to CoreWeave.

"Clearly, Microsoft would have preferred to buy these GPUs. But since supply has been limited for a long time, and Mr. Jensen is allocating so as not to concentrate all the buying power on a few hyperscalers, there's a margin to be made in reselling capacity," notes the author of finance publication Liberty's Highlights. This margin is expected to enable CoreWeave to quadruple its sales by 2025, to around 8 billion euros.

A booming market for AI and cloud startups

CoreWeave's IPO is part of a broader recovery in capital markets after a period of prolonged volatility. With some prestigious names set to hit the market in 2025, CoreWeave's IPO could be one of the biggest in the AI and cloud space.

The company recently closed a $650 million financing round, based on a valuation of $23 billion. Investors included Jane Street, Magnetar, Fidelity Management and Macquarie Capital. This round underlines CoreWeave's appeal to investors looking for new opportunities in the technology ecosystem.

According to Accel, funding for AI and cloud startups in the US, Europe and Israel is expected to reach $79.2 billion by the end of the year, marking a notable recovery after three years of decline.

CoreWeave declined to comment on its plans. However, preparations for the IPO are underway, as Bloomberg reported in November. The company has approached investment banks to accompany this major operation, which could rewrite the rules of the game in the AI and cloud sector. Other large-scale AI companies are in the starting blocks for an IPO in the USA, in particular Las Vegas-based Switch, whose valuation could rise to $40 billion.