CoreWeave has secured $104.2 billion in contracted sales that it has not yet delivered, a figure that rose 246% from a year earlier. While the company's stock has fallen 37% over the past twelve months, trailing the S&P 500's 17.0% return, the size of this revenue backlog represents a significant potential upside for investors focused on future cash flows rather than current debt levels.
The cloud computing firm requires customers to contract ahead of time for AI capacity. By the end of the second quarter of 2026, CoreWeave held the $104.2 billion backlog, which excludes more than $25 billion in net new commitments added early in the third quarter. Executives stated on an August 11 call that delivery has already begun on more than half of that amount. To fulfill the remaining contracts, the company must bring additional data centers online. CoreWeave finished the second quarter with 1.5 gigawatts of active power and had 4.2 gigawatts under contract by the time of the August call. Management now expects to reach more than 1.85 gigawatts of active power by the end of 2026, raising an earlier forecast of more than 1.7 gigawatts.
Revenue growth has outpaced the stock price decline. The company generated $7.6 billion in revenue over the past twelve months, up from $3.5 billion in the prior year. Executives project third-quarter sales will land between $3.45 billion and $3.6 billion, a jump from the $2.6 billion recorded in the second quarter. Despite this top-line growth, CoreWeave shares trade at 5.9 times sales, a premium to the S&P 500's 3.0 multiple, suggesting the market assumes a significant portion of the backlog will convert to revenue.
The expansion is funded largely through external borrowing, which has increased the company's financial obligations. CoreWeave spent $9.4 billion on capital projects in the second quarter and expects to spend between $35 billion and $39 billion for all of 2026. To finance this build-out, the company secured about $18 billion across debt, convertibles, and equity, including $3.7 billion in convertible senior notes priced in September above its initial $3.0 billion target. Consequently, CoreWeave's debt now equals 112.2% of its market value, compared to 21.0% for the S&P 500.
Interest costs are rising faster than operating income. Interest expense reached $640 million in the second quarter, while CoreWeave reported a net loss of $626 million. Management guides for third-quarter interest costs between $860 million and $940 million. In contrast, adjusted operating income was $128 million in the second quarter, with a third-quarter forecast of $200 million to $260 million. Even if CoreWeave achieves the top end of that operating income forecast, it would remain well below the expected interest expenses for the same period.