Truist Securities upgraded CoreWeave to Buy from Hold on Wednesday while lowering its price target to $126 from $131. Analyst Arvind Ramnani said the stock's risk-reward had become attractive after a roughly 35% three-month decline, with the stock at $81.83 at 11:20 a.m. ET Thursday. The upgrade reflects that CoreWeave's share price fell faster than Truist's estimate of its underlying value — the target declined by just 3.8% while the new target implied about 54% upside. CoreWeave is a neocloud provider focused on AI computing infrastructure, with $99.4 billion of revenue backlog at the end of March and substantial capital spending requirements to build capacity.
Truist Cites Enterprise AI Adoption and Scale Advantage for Upgrade
Ramnani based the upgrade on enterprise adoption of open AI models, sovereign AI demand and CoreWeave's scale advantage over other neocloud providers. Truist estimates that CoreWeave could reach 1.7 gigawatts of active power and about $18 billion of annual recurring revenue by year-end.
The valuation gap was central to the call. Truist estimated CoreWeave at about 2.8 times expected 2027 sales, compared with 4.8 times for Nebius and 5.4 times for IREN, despite CoreWeave's larger operating footprint. Truist expects CoreWeave to spend $35.1 billion on capital projects in 2026 and $60.1 billion in 2027, with deeply negative free cash flow while the company builds capacity.
Analyst ratings reflect the expected return from the current share price, not only the absolute value of the target. A move from $131 to $126 says Truist's estimate of CoreWeave's future equity value weakened slightly, while moving the rating to Buy says the market price weakened much more.
CoreWeave Reports $99.4 Billion Revenue Backlog and $25.1 Billion Debt
CoreWeave ended March with $99.4 billion of revenue backlog, including a new $21 billion Meta commitment and a multi-year agreement with Anthropic. It had surpassed 1 gigawatt of active power and secured more than 3.5 gigawatts of contracted power.
The cost of delivering that contract book is substantial. CoreWeave paid $7.7 billion for property and equipment in the first quarter alone, up from $1.4 billion a year earlier. The company reported $25.1 billion of debt principal at March 31, including $7.5 billion classified as current debt. It had $11.1 billion of total liquidity, but that figure included $8.8 billion available through existing borrowing facilities alongside its cash and securities.
The company must fund GPUs, data centers and power before much of that contracted revenue can be recognized. The backlog provides unusual revenue visibility, but the capital requirements remain substantial.
AMD Agrees to Supply Anthropic With 2 Gigawatts of MI450 Systems
The sector demand case strengthened this week when AMD agreed to supply Anthropic with up to 2 gigawatts of Instinct MI450 systems beginning in the first half of 2027. AMD also agreed to invest up to $5 billion in Anthropic, with the investment tied to deployment milestones.
The agreement does not automatically become CoreWeave revenue. Anthropic plans to deploy some systems directly and obtain additional capacity through cloud providers and other AI infrastructure companies. The agreement confirms the scale of the computing requirement: AI developers are still committing to infrastructure measured in gigawatts and tens of billions of dollars.
ARK Invest made a similar allocation choice before the AMD announcement. Its July 17 trades included approximately $19.4 million of SpaceX and $8.4 million of CoreWeave purchases, bringing the combined buying to nearly $28 million, while it sold about $11.8 million of AMD shares. ARK states that its daily trade files are published after execution and are informational, unofficial and unreconciled rather than complete fund accounting records.
CoreWeave Traded at $81.83 With $126 Target Representing 12-Month Case
CoreWeave traded between $80.67 and $85.30 on Thursday and was at $81.83 at 11:20 a.m. ET. The low-$80s are the immediate reference area, while Truist's $126 target represents the 12-month valuation case rather than a near-term technical level.
As of Thursday, CoreWeave had not added a second-quarter earnings call to its investor-relations calendar. The results will be the next major test once scheduled. Investors will be watching whether backlog continues to rise, how quickly contracted power becomes active capacity and whether revenue growth begins to outrun depreciation, interest expense and capital spending.
FAQ
Why did Truist upgrade CoreWeave stocks while lowering the price target?
Truist upgraded CoreWeave to Buy from Hold on Wednesday while lowering its price target to $126 from $131 because the stock's share price fell faster than the firm's estimate of its underlying value. The stock declined roughly 35% over three months while the target declined by just 3.8%, creating what analyst Arvind Ramnani called an attractive risk-reward at $81.83 at 11:20 a.m. ET Thursday, with the new target implying about 54% upside.
What revenue backlog and debt does CoreWeave report?
CoreWeave ended March with $99.4 billion of revenue backlog, including a new $21 billion Meta commitment and a multi-year agreement with Anthropic. The company reported $25.1 billion of debt principal at March 31, including $7.5 billion classified as current debt, and had $11.1 billion of total liquidity. CoreWeave paid $7.7 billion for property and equipment in the first quarter alone, up from $1.4 billion a year earlier.
What did AMD agree to supply Anthropic?
AMD agreed to supply Anthropic with up to 2 gigawatts of Instinct MI450 systems beginning in the first half of 2027. AMD also agreed to invest up to $5 billion in Anthropic, with the investment tied to deployment milestones. Anthropic plans to deploy some systems directly and obtain additional capacity through cloud providers and other AI infrastructure companies.
