The expansion ambitions of the new cloud computing giant are emerging, CoreWeave launches an AI venture capital fund

The new cloud computing darling CoreWeave is expanding its business landscape from infrastructure services to early-stage investment, aiming to consolidate its core position in the artificial intelligence industry chain and capture growth opportunities brought by cutting-edge innovations. On Tuesday, this year's hottest IPO among cloud infrastructure companies announced the official launch of a venture capital fund named "CoreWeave Ventures," focusing on investing in AI startups. This news quickly generated a positive response in the market, driving its stock price up 7.8% in pre-market trading. According to the press release issued by the company, the fund will provide AI founders with diversified capital investment models, computing resources from the CoreWeave cloud platform, and guidance on product and marketing strategies based on its existing partnerships. Earlier on Tuesday, its competitor Nebius announced a five-year, $19.4 billion computing supply agreement with Microsoft, which has already boosted investor confidence in this sector. CoreWeave's investment layout is a further expansion signal built on this foundation. Dual Support of Capital and Computing Power The newly established venture capital fund by CoreWeave aims to provide AI startups with support that goes beyond mere financial investment. Its core strategy is to deeply bind capital with its powerful computing resources, forming a unique competitive advantage. According to the company's statement, CoreWeave Ventures will provide three levels of support to invested companies: first, flexible capital investment; second, direct access to the CoreWeave cloud platform, which offers key resources such as NVIDIA GPUs and high-performance storage specifically for AI workloads; third, market strategy guidance based on CoreWeave's own successful experiences and extensive partnership network. CoreWeave co-founder and Chief Development Officer Brannin McBee stated in the press release: “Our goal in establishing CoreWeave Ventures is to provide the necessary support to other like-minded and bold founders to drive technological advancement and bring the next generation of innovation to market.” Tech Giants Competing for AI Startups CoreWeave's entry into venture capital is the latest example of tech industry giants rushing into the investment frenzy for AI startups. Data shows that in just the first half of this year, the total financing for U.S. AI startups has reached $104.3 billion, nearly matching the total for all of 2024. Notably, CoreWeave itself has also received support from chip giant NVIDIA. As the largest publicly traded company in the "neocloud" (next-generation cloud service provider) sector, CoreWeave has experienced significant stock price volatility since its IPO, with its market performance closely tied to investor expectations for AI prospects The company went public in late March this year at a price of $40 per share, and subsequently, driven by retail investors' enthusiasm, the stock price soared to a high of $187 in June, as investors sought new artificial intelligence investment targets beyond Nvidia. Since then, the stock price has retreated, closing at $93.55 per share on Monday. Year-to-date, the company's stock price has risen by 133%.