CoreWeave shares fell 10.06% to close at $55.60 on Wednesday, marking a new 52-week low for the AI cloud infrastructure provider. The decline followed a price target cut from Bernstein, which cited significant financing pressures required to support the company's committed work backlog.
Trading activity intensified as the stock slid, with volume reaching 79.7 million shares. This figure exceeded the three-month average of 35.9 million shares by approximately 122%. CoreWeave, which went public in 2025, had grown 39% since its initial listing prior to this session's drop.
The sell-off occurred amid broader weakness in technology stocks. The S&P 500 index declined 1.22% to finish at 7,663, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 2.60% to close at 26,009. Peer companies in the neocloud sector also experienced losses, with Nebius Group closing down 7.23% at $159.17 and Iren falling 8.37% to $25.51.
Bernstein analyst Madison Rezaei reduced her price target for CoreWeave from $74 to $51 per share, maintaining an "Underperform" rating. The firm's analysis highlighted that CoreWeave requires approximately $85 billion to fund its committed backlog, a figure that underscores the heavy debt loads carried by neoclouds supplying data center compute capacity.
Despite the negative equity action, industry leaders expressed confidence in the underlying demand for compute resources. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang described demand for neoclouds as "off the charts." Blackstone chief operating officer Jon Gray also praised CoreWeave's leadership in an interview with CNBC, noting that the company has a talented CEO and a strong underlying business.
Gray acknowledged the financing challenge but suggested management would navigate it, stating, "They'll find a way through it, but that's the challenge they face." The divergence between the stock's price action and executive commentary highlights the market's focus on interest rates and debt costs for AI infrastructure firms.