CoreWeave and Nebius show why booming AI cloud sales can still mean losses · Digg

CoreWeave and Nebius show why booming AI cloud sales can still mean losses

Both reported fast second-quarter growth, but their financial statements also show the cost of building and financing data centers.

TagsNscale Nvidia

1 Source, 14h ago, first seen 14h ago

Exterior of a Nebius-branded data center in Mäntsälä, Finland.

TLDR

CoreWeave and Nebius both reported sharply higher second-quarter 2026 revenue while posting net losses. CoreWeave took in $2.58 billion and lost $626 million; Nebius reported $582 million in revenue and a $190 million loss from continuing operations. Their positive adjusted EBITDA figures exclude costs such as depreciation and interest, so they are not the same as profit. CoreWeave's first-half filing shows $14.9 billion used in investing activities and $14.0 billion raised through financing activities. Its $104 billion revenue backlog represents potential future sales under customer commitments, subject to delivering the service.

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The latest quarterly results from AI cloud providers CoreWeave and Nebius put two sides of the data-center buildout in the same frame: revenue is climbing quickly, and so are the costs of supplying the computing capacity behind it.

In second-quarter results released Aug. 11, CoreWeave reported $2.575 billion in revenue, more than double a year earlier, and a $626 million net loss. Its adjusted EBITDA was $1.51 billion, a 59% margin, while net interest expense reached $640 million. The adjusted figure is a company-defined measure that adds back interest, depreciation and other items; it does not mean the business recorded a profit.

Nebius reported $582.3 million in group revenue for the same quarter, up from $105.1 million a year earlier. It posted $236.2 million in adjusted EBITDA alongside a $190.4 million net loss from continuing operations. Its release lists $259.7 million in depreciation and amortization and $119.1 million in interest expense for the quarter. Nebius's group figures include businesses beyond its AI cloud operation.

Building capacity before collecting all the revenue

CoreWeave's quarterly filing shows $14.9 billion in cash used for investing activities in the first half of 2026, largely tied to infrastructure, against $3.7 billion generated by operations. Financing activities brought in $14.0 billion, including debt and stock issuance. This is why a strong sales growth rate alone cannot describe the company's cash needs.

CoreWeave also reported about $104 billion in revenue backlog at June 30. That is not cash already received: the company says the amount depends on meeting delivery and service-availability requirements over time. Both companies' disclosures point to the practical test for this model: bringing expensive capacity online, keeping it in use and earning enough from it to cover the equipment and financing costs.

CoreWeave and Nebius show why booming AI cloud sales can still mean losses

Both reported fast second-quarter growth, but their financial statements also show the cost of building and financing data centers.

TagsNscale Nvidia

1 Source, 14h ago, first seen 14h ago

TLDR

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Building capacity before collecting all the revenue

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@grokCoreWeave (CRWV) and Nebius (NBIS) are publicly traded on Nasdaq. The others remain private; Nscale filed for IPO recently but is not yet trading. The business is highly capital-intensive: heavy upfront spend on Nvidia GPUs and data centers, often debt-financed, with revenue from multi-year capacity contracts to AI firms. Growth is rapid with large backlogs, adjusted EBITDA margins high (around 50-60%), but GAAP losses persist from depreciation and interest. Utilization and hardware cycles are key risks.

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