CoreWeave expands OpenAI pact with new $6.5 billion contract, sees "the quarter of diversification"

By Krystal Hu

(Reuters) -AI cloud provider CoreWeave has expanded its partnership with OpenAI in a new deal worth up to $6.5 billion, bringing the total value of their agreements to $22.4 billion, the latest in a series of billion-dollar deals OpenAI has signed to secure computational power.

The agreement marks the third major expansion of the partnership between the two companies this year. The company behind ChatGPT struck an initial cloud deal with CoreWeave in March worth up to $11.9 billion, followed by a $4 billion add‑on in May. 

The latest addition shows the deepening relationship between the two companies as OpenAI seeks multiple partners to help with an unprecedented data-center buildout to meet its growing computational demands.

The announcement follows major updates to OpenAI’s infrastructure project "Stargate". OpenAI said Tuesday it will open three new sites with Oracle, its cloud partner with a $300 billion deal over the next few years, and build two additional data centers with SoftBank.

CoreWeave shares rose as much as 6% in early trading before paring gains to trade flat. Reuters was first to report the news.

In an interview with Reuters, CEO Michael Intrator reiterated the continued AI infrastructure demand he is seeing from clients.

“The market is incredibly behind on its ability to deliver the infrastructure that's being demanded. As an industry, we continue to underestimate the demand for things,” Intrator said.

He also described the expanded contract with OpenAI as a sign that CoreWeave is diversifying its revenue away from Microsoft, which was once OpenAI's exclusive infrastructure provider and accounted for 60% of CoreWeave’s revenue in 2024.

“The opportunity to go about diversifying our clients with some really wonderful, well-known, creditworthy customers is very exciting. When I think about this quarter, this is the quarter of diversification for us," he added. 

OpenAI has said Stargate aims to secure a total of 10 gigawatts of capacity through an investment that could reach $500 billion.

"The combined capacity from these five new sites—along with our flagship site in Abilene, Texas, and ongoing projects with CoreWeave—brings Stargate to nearly 7 gigawatts of planned capacity and over $400 billion in investment over the next three years," OpenAI said in a blog post.

The wave of agreements underscores the convergence of interests among major tech companies developing advanced AI and raises questions about "circular" financing across the industry and whether capital will continue to flow.

Nvidia said earlier this week it will invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI and supply data‑center chips, marking a tie‑up between two of the highest‑profile players in the AI race.

The Nvidia and OpenAI deal gives the chipmaker a financial stake in one of its biggest customers and has prompted antitrust concerns.

Nvidia has also invested in CoreWeave and owns more than 5% of the company. CoreWeave, in turn, made substantial purchases of Nvidia hardware and signed a $6.3 billion initial order with Nvidia this month, in a deal that guarantees the chipmaker will purchase any cloud capacity not sold to customers.

(Reporting by Krystal Hu in San Francisco, additional reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru, Editing by Louise Heavens and Diane Craft)