CoreWeave falls; Needham downgrades rating to 'hold'

** Shares of AI data center firm CoreWeave CRWV.O down 3.7% at $147.39

** Needham downgrades CRWV's rating to "hold" from "buy"

** With CRWV currently trading at 41x Needham's 2026 EBIT estimates, it believes the valuation is full and downgrades stock

** Needham believes CRWV's deal to buy crypto miner Core Scientific CORZ.O is a strategic fit and would unlock additional IT capacity for high-performance computing and AI workloads

** CRWV said on Monday it would buy CORZ in an all-stock deal valued at about $9 billion, or $20.40 per share

** CRWV stock now up ~283% from the $40 price in its March IPO