CoreWeave Q3 2026 Earnings: Revenue More Than Doubles as Net Loss Widens

CoreWeave (NASDAQ: CRWV) reported Q3 2026 revenue of $3.661 billion, up from $1.365 billion a year earlier, while diluted loss per share widened to $1.27 from $0.22. GAAP operating income rose to $207 million and the operating margin improved to 6%, but $846 million of net interest expense pushed the net loss to $709 million. Adjusted EBITDA reached $2.256 billion at a 62% margin, while revenue backlog was approximately $132.5 billion.

Core Earnings Data

Revenue increased approximately 168% year over year for the quarter ended September 30, 2026. Total operating expenses rose approximately 163% to $3.454 billion, slightly slower than revenue, allowing the GAAP operating margin to expand by two percentage points.

The improvement did not extend to the bottom line. Net interest expense increased from $310 million to $846 million, more than offsetting operating income and contributing to a substantially wider net loss.

Adjusted EBITDA and adjusted operating income are non-GAAP measures and exclude different expense categories, making their margin trends important to evaluate separately.

Infrastructure Expansion and Backlog

CoreWeave added more than 200 megawatts of active power during the quarter, taking its active footprint above 1.7 gigawatts—double its level at the beginning of 2026. Total contracted power increased by more than 900 megawatts to over 4.6 gigawatts, including more than 1.3 gigawatts across international markets such as India, Indonesia, and Spain.

Revenue backlog reached approximately $132.5 billion. The company defines backlog as remaining performance obligations plus other amounts expected to be recognized under committed customer contracts. Recognition remains subject to infrastructure delivery and service availability, so backlog should not be treated as current revenue.

CoreWeave also reported new customers including Canva, Serve Robotics, Substack, and Wayve, along with expanded relationships with OpenAI, Cohere, Perplexity, Jane Street, and other existing customers. Technology initiatives included launching the CoreWeave Forge development environment and bringing multi-rack NVIDIA Vera Rubin NVL72 systems online.

Operating Profit Growth Is Offset by Interest and Capital Intensity

The quarter showed different trends across profitability measures. GAAP operating margin increased from 4% to 6%, but adjusted operating margin declined from 16% to 10% because adjusted operating income grew much more slowly than revenue. One factor behind the different year-over-year directions is the relative impact of excluded expenses: stock-based compensation was $160 million in Q3 2026 versus $144 million a year earlier, making the add-back much smaller relative to revenue this quarter.

Adjusted EBITDA margin increased to 62%, but that measure excludes $1.889 billion of quarterly depreciation and amortization, up from $630 million. Adjusted operating income largely retains the economic effect of infrastructure depreciation, making its lower margin particularly relevant for a capital-intensive cloud operator.

Below the operating line, net interest expense of $846 million was more than four times GAAP operating income. CoreWeave consequently recorded a $626 million pretax loss, which widened to a $709 million net loss after an $83 million income tax provision.

Operating cash flow was positive at $1.975 billion, supported by $1.889 billion of depreciation and amortization and a $2.127 billion increase in deferred revenue. These benefits were partly offset by a $1.741 billion cash use from accounts receivable and $442 million from prepaid expenses and other assets.

Property and equipment purchases totaled $9.441 billion, far exceeding operating cash flow and contributing to a $9.836 billion investing cash outflow. CoreWeave funded the gap with $7.361 billion of financing cash inflow, including $10.301 billion of debt proceeds and $2.344 billion of debt repayments.

At September 30, cash and cash equivalents were $4.122 billion, while cash plus restricted cash totaled $6.404 billion. Recourse and non-recourse debt amounted to approximately $46.9 billion, up from about $21.4 billion at the end of 2025. Property and equipment increased to $56.778 billion from $30.557 billion over the same period.

Guidance

CoreWeave raised its full-year revenue and adjusted operating income outlook. At the same time, it increased the low end of capital expenditure guidance and forecast higher quarterly interest expense, underscoring the financing requirements associated with its infrastructure buildout.

Annualized run-rate revenue is calculated by multiplying revenue from the final month of the quarter by 12; it is not the same as recognized full-year revenue.

Management View

CEO Michael Intrator said quarterly revenue increased by more than $1 billion sequentially and that adjusted operating margin reached double digits one quarter ahead of the company’s plan. Management expects contract-backed financing, operating cash flow, and approximately $9 billion of customer prepayments and deposits over the following three months to support continued investment. The higher capital expenditure outlook reflects plans to deploy infrastructure and deliver it to customers sooner than previously planned.

Recent Insider Transactions

Among the latest ten insider records supplied, six included a specified transaction type. Four disclosed sales had a combined reported value of approximately $31.4 million, while two directors received zero-price stock awards; the remaining four records did not show a transaction type, price, or amount and are omitted below.

These transactions describe reported insider activity but do not, by themselves, establish management’s view of CoreWeave’s outlook or valuation.

Investor Risks to Watch

• Interest expense and leverage: Quarterly net interest expense already exceeded operating income, and CoreWeave expects Q4 interest expense of $1.05 billion to $1.15 billion. Continued borrowing could keep operating growth from translating into net profitability.
• Capital requirements: Q3 property and equipment purchases of $9.441 billion were substantially higher than operating cash flow. Full-year capital expenditure guidance of $37 billion to $39 billion implies continued reliance on debt, customer funding, or other financing sources.
• Backlog conversion: The $132.5 billion backlog depends on delivering infrastructure and maintaining service availability. Delays in bringing contracted power and systems online could shift the timing of revenue recognition.
• Adjusted operating margin pressure: Adjusted operating margin fell by six percentage points even as revenue expanded rapidly, showing that growth in adjusted operating profit did not keep pace with sales.
• Cash flow composition: Operating cash generation benefited from deferred revenue and large non-cash depreciation charges, while accounts receivable consumed $1.741 billion. Changes in customer payment timing could materially affect future cash flow.

Summary

CoreWeave’s Q3 2026 results combined rapid revenue growth, higher GAAP operating income, and positive operating cash flow with a wider net loss, rising interest expense, and heavy infrastructure spending. The company’s backlog and expanded power footprint support its raised revenue outlook, but the pace of backlog conversion, adjusted operating margin, capital deployment, and financing costs remain the central issues for investors to monitor.