CoreWeave Q2 2026: the interest bill is larger than the loss

CoreWeave rents out AI compute. In the second quarter it rented out $2,575 million of it, up 112% year over year, and told the market its contracted revenue backlog had reached about $104 billion — before more than $25 billion of further commitments signed in early Q3.

The release is also, read carefully, a very clear statement about who actually earns the money in this business today. It is not CoreWeave.

The loss is the interest bill

	Q2 2026	Q2 2025
Revenue	$2,575M	$1,212M
Total operating expenses	$2,624M	$1,193M
Operating income (loss)	$(49)M	$19M
Interest expense, net	$(640)M	$(267)M
Net loss	$(626)M	$(290)M

The operating business lost $49 million on $2.6 billion of revenue — close to breakeven. The company then paid $640 million of net interest, which is more than the entire net loss.

That is not a rhetorical flourish; it is the arithmetic of the income statement. Strip out financing costs and CoreWeave roughly covers its operating costs. Put them back and it loses $626 million in a quarter.

And the financing cost is growing faster than the business. Net interest expense rose 140% year over year against revenue growth of 112%, and now consumes 24.9% of revenue against 22.0% a year ago. For the half year, net interest was $1,176 million against a $193 million operating loss and a $1,366 million net loss.

This is the defining feature of the company. CoreWeave buys or leases enormous quantities of hardware and datacentre capacity, funds it with debt, and rents it out under long contracts. Whether that works is not a question about demand — demand is plainly there — it is a question about whether the spread between what customers pay and what the capital costs is wide enough, and for how long.

Did CoreWeave issue guidance for Q2 2026?

Not in any SEC filing. CoreWeave’s first-quarter release, filed as Exhibit 99.1 to its May 7, 2026 8-K, says only that it “will provide forward-looking guidance in connection with this quarterly earnings announcement on its earnings conference call”, and neither that release nor the Q1 10-Q states a revenue or profit figure for the second quarter. The yardstick the filings support is the year-ago quarter: revenue of $2,575 million against $1,212 million, up about 112% (our arithmetic), and a net loss of $626 million against $290 million, or $1.14 a share against $0.60.

Every operating margin the company discloses went down

The chief executive’s quote in the release says the quarter was “an important inflection point… as our scale began to translate into expanding operating leverage.” Here is what the company’s own margin disclosures did.

Margin	Q2 2026	Q2 2025
GAAP operating margin	(2)%	2%
Adjusted EBITDA margin	59%	62%
Adjusted operating income margin	5%	16%
Net loss margin	(24)%	(24)%

All three profitability margins fell. In absolute dollars adjusted EBITDA did double, from $753 million to $1,510 million — that is real, and it is the number most coverage led with. But adjusted operating income fell from $200 million to $128 million, and its margin fell by eleven points.

The gap between those two non-GAAP measures is where the whole argument sits.

$1.4 billion of depreciation a quarter

	Q2 2026	Q2 2025
Adjusted EBITDA	$1,510M	$753M
Adjusted operating income	$128M	$200M
Difference	$1,382M	$553M

That $1.4 billion difference is, in substance, depreciation. The cash-flow statement confirms the scale: depreciation and amortisation of $1,393 million in the quarter, against $560 million a year ago — growth of 149%, faster than revenue.

For most software businesses, EBITDA is a reasonable proxy for cash earnings because depreciation is small and the assets are long-lived. For CoreWeave it is neither. The assets are GPUs and datacentre fit-out, they are being consumed on a schedule measured in a handful of years, and replacing them is not optional if the contracts are to be served. A 59% adjusted EBITDA margin and a 5% adjusted operating margin describe the same quarter; the second is much closer to what the business earns after the cost of the equipment it rents out.

Two costs — depreciation at +149% and interest at +140% — are both growing faster than revenue at +112%. Those two lines are the price of the capital, and the capital is what the customers are actually buying.

The balance sheet in six months

($ millions)	30 Jun 2026	31 Dec 2025
Property and equipment, net	46,736	30,557
Operating lease right-of-use assets	16,595	8,231
Total assets	77,070	49,302
Recourse debt (current + non-current)	31,405	20,726
Non-recourse debt (current + non-current)	3,663	647
Total debt	35,068	21,373
Operating lease liabilities (current + non-current)	16,319	8,195
Total liabilities	72,046	45,967
Total stockholders’ equity	5,024	3,335

Debt rose 64% in six months. Add the operating lease liabilities — economically the same commitment, just structured as a lease — and the obligations reach roughly $51.4 billion, against $5.0 billion of equity. Total liabilities are 14.3 times equity.

The cash-flow statement shows how fast it is moving. In the second quarter alone CoreWeave used $7,166 million in investing activities, raised $13,457 million of debt gross, repaid $3,884 million, and issued $997 million of stock in private placements. For the half, investing outflows were $14,874 million.

The release lists the funding as achievements, and in fairness they are: more than $10 billion of unsecured debt and convertible bonds including an inaugural Eurobond, a $1 billion strategic investment from Jane Street, and what the company describes as the first ever publicly syndicated delayed-draw facility backed by high-performance-computing infrastructure. Being able to raise that much on those structures is a genuine competitive advantage. It is also the thing that has to keep working.

What the backlog is and is not

Backlog of $104 billion against annualised current revenue of about $10.3 billion is roughly ten years of revenue already contracted. That is an extraordinary demand signal and the single strongest fact in the release. The footnote adds that it excludes more than $25 billion of net new customer commitments added in early Q3.

Two qualifications belong next to it.

First, the company defines backlog as remaining performance obligations plus other amounts it estimates will be recognised in future periods under committed contracts, “subject to the satisfaction of delivery and availability of service requirements.” Part of it is therefore an estimate conditioned on CoreWeave building the capacity.

Second — and this is the point the balance sheet makes — converting backlog into revenue requires capital in advance. Property and equipment grew $16.2 billion in six months to serve it. Backlog does not fund itself; each dollar of it has to be preceded by spending that is currently financed with debt. A ten-year backlog is only as valuable as the terms on which the next ten years of equipment can be financed.

The physical build is running at the same pace: active power expanded by nearly 500 MW in the quarter to 1.5 GW, with total contracted power around 3.7 GW.

What management put on the record

Item	Company figure
Revenue backlog	~$104 billion at 30 June, excluding >$25 billion added in early Q3
Active power	+~500 MW in the quarter, to 1.5 GW
Contracted power	~3.7 GW, across a diversified provider base
Financing	>$10 billion of unsecured debt and convertible bonds, including an inaugural Eurobond; a first publicly syndicated delayed-draw facility backed by HPC infrastructure
Strategic investment	$1 billion from Jane Street
Technology	First bring-up and validation of NVIDIA Vera Rubin NVL72
Index	Added to the Nasdaq-100
Guidance	Not in the release — deferred to the earnings call

The bear case, stated fairly

1. Net interest expense ($640M) exceeded the net loss ($626M). The operating result was roughly breakeven; the loss is the cost of money.
2. Interest (+140%) and depreciation (+149%) are both growing faster than revenue (+112%). The two costs of the capital are outrunning what the capital earns.
3. Adjusted operating income fell from $200 million to $128 million, and every disclosed margin — GAAP operating, adjusted EBITDA and adjusted operating — declined year over year.
4. Adjusted EBITDA at a 59% margin excludes $1.4 billion of quarterly depreciation on assets that are consumed and must be replaced. It is not a cash-earnings proxy here.
5. Debt rose 64% in six months to $35.1 billion, with $16.3 billion of lease liabilities on top, against $5.0 billion of equity.
6. The model requires continuous access to capital markets. Q2 alone needed $13.5 billion of gross debt issuance and $1.0 billion of equity.
7. Backlog conversion is capital-gated, and the definition includes estimated amounts conditioned on CoreWeave delivering capacity it has not yet built.

The bull case is equally concrete. Revenue more than doubled and came in above consensus. Backlog reached $104 billion with more than $25 billion added again in the first weeks of Q3 — demand is not the constraint. Adjusted EBITDA doubled to $1.5 billion. Active power grew by nearly 500 MW in a single quarter to 1.5 GW, with 3.7 GW contracted. The company is being financed on structures nobody else in the sector has executed, was added to the Nasdaq-100, and was first to bring up NVIDIA’s newest rack-scale system — which matters, because being first on new silicon is how this business wins the contracts that fill the backlog.

What to check at the Q3 report

• Interest expense, net, against $640 million. With $13.5 billion of debt raised in Q2 alone, the run rate has not finished rising. This is the line that decides when losses stop.
• Adjusted operating income against $128 million, and its margin against 5%. This, not adjusted EBITDA, is where operating leverage would first appear.
• Depreciation against $1,393 million, and whether it keeps outgrowing revenue.
• Total debt against $35.1 billion, lease liabilities against $16.3 billion, and equity against $5.0 billion.
• Backlog against $104 billion, and how much of the >$25 billion added in early Q3 shows up in the reported figure.
• Active power against 1.5 GW — the physical measure of how much of that backlog can actually be served.
• Q3 revenue against the $3.4–3.6 billion guided on the 11 August call, as reported by CNBC — call guidance, not a filed figure; the release itself contains none (see the method note).

The read

CoreWeave is not a company with a demand problem or an operating problem. It is very close to operating breakeven on more than doubled revenue, and it has ten years of contracted work in hand.

It is a company with a capital structure question. Two lines — depreciation and interest, together about $2.0 billion in a quarter on $2.6 billion of revenue — are both growing faster than the revenue they support, and both are the direct consequence of a model that buys the asset and rents it out. Adjusted EBITDA of $1.5 billion invites you to look past both. The gap between that and $128 million of adjusted operating income is the part that has to close.

For anyone holding CRWV, the three numbers that matter are adjusted operating income, net interest expense and total debt. Revenue growth and backlog tell you the demand is real. They do not tell you what the equity is worth after the lenders are paid.

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Sources and method. Company figures — revenue of $2,575 million against $1,212 million and half-year revenue of $4,653 million against $2,194 million; cost of revenue of $879 million, technology and infrastructure of $1,507 million, sales and marketing of $60 million, general and administrative of $178 million and total operating expenses of $2,624 million; the operating loss of $49 million against $19 million of operating income, and the half-year operating loss of $193 million; net interest expense of $640 million against $267 million (half year $1,176 million against $531 million); net loss of $626 million against $290 million (half year $1,366 million) and basic and diluted loss per share of $1.14 against $0.60 on 551 million weighted-average shares against 487 million; adjusted EBITDA of $1,510 million against $753 million at margins of 59% and 62%, adjusted operating income of $128 million against $200 million at margins of 5% and 16%, and adjusted net loss of $567 million against $130 million; revenue backlog of approximately $104 billion at 30 June with the footnote that it excludes more than $25 billion of net new customer commitments added in early Q3 and the company’s definition of the measure; the balance-sheet lines (property and equipment of $46,736 million against $30,557 million, operating lease right-of-use assets of $16,595 million, total assets of $77,070 million, recourse debt of $6,235 million current and $25,170 million non-current, non-recourse debt of $1,278 million current and $2,385 million non-current, operating lease liabilities of $584 million current and $15,735 million non-current, total liabilities of $72,046 million, accumulated deficit of $4,009 million and total stockholders’ equity of $5,024 million, each against the 31 December 2025 comparative); the cash-flow lines (depreciation and amortisation of $1,393 million against $560 million and $2,540 million for the half; stock-based compensation of $165 million; investing outflows of $7,166 million in the quarter and $14,874 million for the half; debt proceeds of $13,457 million and repayments of $3,884 million in the quarter; $997 million of private-placement stock issuance; $550 million invested in joint ventures); and the operating highlights — nearly 500 MW of added active power to reach 1.5 GW, approximately 3.7 GW of contracted power, more than $10 billion of unsecured debt and convertible bonds including an inaugural Eurobond, the $1 billion Jane Street investment, the delayed-draw facility, the NVIDIA Vera Rubin NVL72 bring-up and Nasdaq-100 inclusion — are CoreWeave’s own disclosures in Exhibit 99.1 to the Form 8-K filed 2026-08-11 (accession 0001769628-26-000362) for the quarter ended 2026-06-30, read directly from SEC EDGAR. The chief executive’s quotation is from the same document. Also company figures, from earlier filings: the Q1 2026 comparatives — revenue of $2,078 million, a net loss of $740 million and revenue backlog of $99.4 billion at 31 March — from Exhibit 99.1 to the Form 8-K filed 2026-05-07 (accession 0001769628-26-000220); revenue backlog of $66.8 billion at 31 December 2025 from Exhibit 99.1 to the Form 8-K filed 2026-02-26 (accession 0001769628-26-000094); and the customer commitments — Meta’s “new $21 billion commitment signed in March” and a multi-year agreement with Anthropic, both in the Q1 release; and Meta’s initial commitment of up to approximately $21.0 billion under an order form entered into in March 2026 and Jane Street’s commitment of approximately $6.0 billion to use the platform, announced in April 2026, both as described in the Form 10-Q for the quarter ended 2026-06-30 (filed 2026-08-12, accession 0001769628-26-000366). That commitment is separate from the $1 billion Jane Street strategic investment listed in the Q2 release.

A disclosure that belongs in the open: the release contains no forward guidance. It states that CoreWeave “will provide forward-looking guidance in connection with this quarterly earnings announcement on its earnings conference call”, and the Q1 2026 release (Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1, filed 2026-05-07) says the same, so whether the quarter beat or missed is judged here only against the year-ago quarter. Guidance given on the 11 August call is not a filed figure and nothing in this analysis rests on it. As reported by CNBC (cited above), management called on that call for third-quarter revenue of $3.4–3.6 billion and, for full-year 2026, revenue of $12.4–13.2 billion, adjusted operating income of $960 million to $1.15 billion, more than 1.85 GW of active power by year end and capital expenditures of $35–39 billion. CNBC’s coverage of the Q1 cycle (cited above) reported the earlier May outlook of $12–13 billion of 2026 revenue and $31–35 billion of 2026 capital expenditures.

Not company figures, and attributed accordingly: the Q2 revenue consensus of roughly $2.56 billion and the expected adjusted loss of $1.20 a share, both LSEG consensus as reported by CNBC (cited above), and CNBC’s report of an adjusted loss of $1.03 a share against it — a per-share figure the filed release does not state (it gives the adjusted net loss only in dollars, $567 million). This piece makes no claim about the share-price reaction.

Our arithmetic, labelled as such: the 112.5% revenue growth, 139.7% growth in net interest expense and 148.8% growth in depreciation; net interest at 24.9% of revenue against 22.0%; the $1,382 million and $553 million gaps between adjusted EBITDA and adjusted operating income, and the observation that the gap is substantially depreciation; total debt of $35,068 million against $21,373 million and the 64% increase; combined debt and operating lease liabilities of about $51.4 billion; total liabilities at 14.3 times equity; the $16.2 billion six-month increase in net property and equipment; and backlog at roughly ten years of annualised current revenue. These are approximations built on disclosed figures, not reported numbers. The interpretation — that the loss is a financing cost rather than an operating one, that the disclosed margins contradict the “expanding operating leverage” framing, and that backlog conversion is gated by capital rather than demand — is our analysis, not a company statement, and is not a forecast.

Related: Super Micro Q4 FY2026, which sells the hardware this model rents out and reported the same evening with the opposite balance sheet; Rocket Lab Q2 2026, which reported the night before and where the bottom line also moved on the interest line rather than on operations; SpaceX Q2 2026 and AMD Q2 2026 on the capital intensity of the same trade; and Microsoft Q4 FY2026 for the hyperscaler side of it.

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