CoreWeave Disappoints on Opening of Trading
The start-up, which provides the processing power to help develop A.I. systems, faces questions about its debt and the overall economy.
The start-up, which provides the processing power to help develop A.I. systems, faces questions about its debt and the overall economy.
Shares of CoreWeave, the first artificial intelligence start-up to go public, finished its first day of trading at $40.01 a share, one penny above the disappointing initial public offering price the company had set a day earlier.
The company’s share price, trading under the ticker symbol CRWV, signaled concern among Wall Street investors about the economy and CoreWeave’s business model.
The faltering day of trading came amid a slumping stock market and uncertainty around inflation and President Trump’s tariffs. The S&P 500 dropped 2 percent on Friday, one of its worst days since Mr. Trump’s election.
The listing’s reduced price — CoreWeave estimated a range of $47 to $55 in earlier filings — already reflected skepticism from investors compared with a month ago. The company’s trading opened at $39 a share on Friday, even after CoreWeave dropped the size and value of its I.P.O.
CoreWeave, which runs data centers that help power giant A.I. systems, also raised just $1.5 billion in the offering, compared with the $4 billion that analysts had anticipated.
In an interview on Friday, Michael Intrator, CoreWeave’s chief executive, said that concerns about the stock market and the A.I. industry had caused the company to reduce its listing, but that the timing of its offering would still benefit the company in the long run.
