CoreWeave, an innovative startup specializing in AI cloud infrastructure, has announced a significant capital injection of $1.1 billion in its latest funding round. The investment round was spearheaded by Coatue, a renowned investment firm focused on technology.
This substantial financial backing has elevated CoreWeave’s valuation to an impressive $19 billion, marking a notable increase from its $7 billion valuation just five months prior, following a secondary sale. The jump is even more remarkable considering the company’s $2 billion valuation during a Series B extension in the previous year.
Joining Coatue in this round of investment were other prominent firms, including Magnetar Capital, Altimeter Capital, Fidelity Management & Research Co., and Lykos Global Management. To date, CoreWeave has amassed approximately $4.6 billion in funding, according to data from Crunchbase.
“CoreWeave is designed specifically to tackle the most complex and pressing challenges in high performance compute. With this new round, we will continue investing in and working with the largest AI enterprises in the world,” stated Mike Intrator, CoreWeave co-founder and CEO.
The newly acquired funds will fuel the company’s growth and expansion into new global markets, responding to the soaring demand for GPU accelerated cloud infrastructure worldwide.
Despite a slowdown in significant funding deals last quarter, venture funding for AI-related startups saw a slight increase in Q1 2024 compared to the previous quarter. A total of $12.2 billion was invested in venture-backed AI startups across 1,166 deals in Q1, reflecting a 4% increase in dollar terms from Q4 2023, which saw $11.7 billion invested in 1,072 deals.
The upward trend in AI startup funding demonstrates the sector’s resilience and the growing investor confidence in the potential of AI technologies to reshape various industries.
