Key Points

• The stock prices of Nebius and CoreWeave have risen due to the strengthening demand for AI.
• CoreWeave Quarterly interest cost reached $846 million
• Nebius Welcomes a Financial Test Amidst Billions of Dollars in Financing Commitments

On Wednesday, November 11th, as stronger AI infrastructure performance boosted investors' confidence in this sector once again, the stock prices of Nebius and CoreWeave soared significantly. This sector is now becoming increasingly dependent on borrowing for financing.

CoreWeave soared by about 24%, while Nebius rose by approximately 16% before its financial report was released on November 12th. In the weeks prior to that, AI, a cloud service provider, continued to face pressure, with investors questioning whether the growing revenue could offset the increasing debt, interest expenses, and construction costs.

CoreWeave Revenue grows by 168%, interest costs nearly triple

According to the third-quarter financial report, CoreWeave achieved revenue of $3.66 billion, a year-on-year increase of 168%; its backlog of orders increased to $132.5 billion.

This performance has boosted market confidence in future demand, driving a strong rebound in the stock price of CoreWeave.

However, the company's quarterly net loss expanded to $709 million, compared to $110 million in the same period last year.

Net interest expenses reached $846 million, compared to $310 million during the same period in 2025. As of the end of September, the total debt of CoreWeave was approximately $46.9 billion.

Management expects that interest expenses in the fourth quarter will still reach $1.05 billion to $1.15 billion, while annual capital expenditures are projected to be between $37 billion and $39 billion.

The company is increasingly turning to customer-supported financing, including approximately $9 billion in customer prepayments and deposits expected over the next three months.

Nebius Faces a Financing Test of Several Billion Dollars of Its Own

Nebius is about to release its quarterly financial report. Although its revenue scale is relatively small, its expansion plans are equally aggressive.

This AI cloud service provider, headquartered in Amsterdam, reported revenue of $582.3 million in the second quarter, a year-on-year increase of 454%. Analysts expect its sales in the third quarter to be around $907 million, which means the growth rate will exceed 500%.

Its rapid expansion has been supported by large-scale contracts with Microsoft, Meta, and other corporate clients, as well as infrastructure cooperation with Palantir.

However, building production capacity requires a large amount of upfront capital.

Nebius previously raised $5.75 billion through convertible senior notes financing and in October obtained a $3.5 billion financing arrangement from Citibank.

After the company previously announced its convertible bonds, the stock price plummeted significantly, reflecting market concerns about increased borrowing and potential dilution of shareholders' equity.

Analysts estimate that Nebius's interest expenses in the third quarter may be around $146 million, while the actual figure for CoreWeave is $846 million. However, there are significant differences between the two companies in terms of scale, financing structure, and revenue recognition methods.

AI Can the demand offset the expansion costs?

This financial challenge is not limited to just these two companies.

CoreWeave expects that the active power capacity will exceed 1.85 gigawatts by the end of the year, while Nebius's previous goal was to reach a contracted power capacity of 5 gigawatts. These indicators describe production capacities at different stages and should not be considered as directly comparable data.

As potential data center limitations may threaten the construction progress and financing assumptions, this distinction becomes particularly important.

Investors are also questioning whether the income from AI will come fast enough in the future to justify the substantial upfront investments made in this industry.

When customers postpone deployment, or when borrowing costs further rise, this broader AI financing challenge becomes even more severe.