CoreWeave's stock pops as new Anthropic deal highlights intense scramble for AI compute

By Christine Ji

The deal follows an expanded arrangement with Meta that was announced on Thursday

CoreWeave now provides infrastructure for nine of the ten leading AI model providers following its multi-year agreement with Anthropic, according to the press release.

Closing off a momentous week for both companies, CoreWeave and Anthropic announced a multi-year compute agreement on Friday that's scheduled to go online later this year.

The deal marks the first time Anthropic has tapped CoreWeave (CRWV), an artificial-intelligence infrastructure provider, for compute. "With the addition of Anthropic, nine of the leading ten AI model providers now leverage CoreWeave's platform, reflecting the growing demand for infrastructure that can support AI at scale," CoreWeave said in the press release.

According to CoreWeave, the deal "will initially focus on a phased infrastructure rollout with the potential to expand over time."

The agreement is the latest sign that the AI infrastructure boom is far from over. Shares of CoreWeave are up 5% in pre-market trading Friday morning. They've risen nearly 12% since the beginning of the week.

As demand for AI compute far outpaces supply, hyperscalers and leading AI labs have sought out neolabs like CoreWeave to bring capacity online quickly. On Thursday, CoreWeave and Meta Platforms (META) expanded their existing relationship, with Meta committing to an incremental $21 billion of compute on top of an initial $14.2 billion agreement last September.

Read: CoreWeave's stock bounces back. Why investors are cheering the new Meta deal.

Shares of CoreWeave have fluctuated over the last few months, shedding over 30% since October as investors have wondered if the business model of renting out AI infrastructure is sustainable. Big Tech companies are planning to bring their own data centers online in the coming years, and that may pose a risk of cannibalization. However, the recent flurry of dealmaking activity has eased those fears, showing investors that demand for compute has only gotten bigger in recent months.

Anthropic in particular has experienced a surge in popularity this year, leading the company to rapidly secure more compute. With demand for its Claude Code and Cowork products soaring, the company has grown its run-rate revenue to $30 billion, up from just $9 billion at the end of 2025.

On Monday, Anthropic announced an expanded deal with Google (GOOGL) (GOOG) and Broadcom (AVGO) for roughly 3.5 gigawatts of compute capacity starting next year. According to a Reuters report on Thursday, Anthropic is also exploring the possibility of designing its own chips. A representative from Anthropic declined to comment on the company's chip-making ambitions.

Jefferies analyst Brent Thill wrote in a Tuesday note that the Google-Broadcom agreement was likely the first of many for Anthropic as the company seeks out more compute to continue its expansion.

More: Anthropic appears to have overtaken OpenAI on this key financial metric

-Christine Ji

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