CoreWeave shares jumped more than 10% in premarket trading on Wednesday, 11 November, after the AI cloud computing firm reported third-quarter revenue of $3.66 billion, up 168.3% on a year earlier and ahead of the $3.54 billion analysts had expected. The strong result steadied a nervous artificial intelligence trade and lifted US stock futures after a sharp sell-off on Tuesday.

The rally offered relief to investors who have spent recent weeks questioning whether spending on AI data centres is growing too fast and whether the companies building them carry too much debt. CoreWeave, which rents out computing power built around Nvidia chips, has been at the centre of that debate.

Revenue and backlog beat forecasts

CoreWeave said its order backlog surged 138% from the third quarter of last year to $133 billion, beating expectations of $131 billion. The growing backlog gives the company clearer visibility over future revenue and underlines continued demand for its AI infrastructure services.

The company also told investors it expects to become profitable on an adjusted basis in the first half of 2028, a pledge that helped ease concern about its debt burden. CoreWeave has borrowed heavily to fund its rapid expansion, and that leverage has made its shares volatile whenever sentiment towards AI spending turns.

AI stocks rebound across the market

The wider market followed CoreWeave higher before the open. At 5:04 a.m. ET, S&P 500 futures were up 55.75 points, or 0.74%, while Nasdaq 100 futures climbed 465.25 points, or 1.67%. Dow futures were little changed, up 15 points, or 0.03%.

Nvidia shares rose 4% in premarket trading after shedding about $480 billion of value over the previous two sessions, when questions about chief executive Jensen Huang’s relationship with a Chinese businesswoman alleged to be a spy for Beijing intensified. Other chipmakers also recovered, with Marvell Technology and Micron up nearly 7% each.

Investors were also digesting the terms set by Anthropic on Tuesday for its blockbuster initial public offering, with the maker of the Claude chatbot aiming for a valuation of up to $1.4 trillion in the share sale.

Inflation still hangs over the rally

The rebound came after a difficult Tuesday, when all three major US indexes closed lower. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.3% to 52,231.89, the S&P 500 lost 0.4% to 7,520.93 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.7% to 25,065.87.

US consumer prices rose 0.4% in October, more than the 0.3% economists had expected, and traders now see a December rate rise as a near certainty, with an 11.5% chance of a half-percentage-point increase, according to the CME FedWatch tool. Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller had said before the inflation figures were released that the central bank should consider a 50-basis-point rise if October inflation worsened.

The US bond market was shut on Wednesday for the Veterans Day holiday, so there was no live trading in Treasuries to test the mood. The question for the rest of the session is whether the AI rebound holds once cash equities begin trading.

What to watch next

Traders will watch whether CoreWeave can hold its premarket gains through the regular session and whether Nvidia’s recovery extends beyond a single morning. A sustained rebound would suggest Tuesday’s sell-off was a bout of profit-taking rather than a deeper reassessment of AI spending.

For now, CoreWeave’s numbers have given the AI trade something it badly needed: evidence that demand for computing capacity is still growing fast, and a date by which the company expects that growth to turn into profit. This article is for information only and is not investment advice.