CoreWeave’s much-anticipated post-IPO lockup expiration has triggered a wave of share liquidations, with big names like JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley handling large block sales. 
The GPU cloud giant, known for giving clients early access to NVIDIA’s latest hardware across 33 AI data centers, is now seeing a significant increase in tradable shares – and a corresponding price wobble.
When CoreWeave debuted just three months ago, only 11% of its shares were available for trading, keeping short sellers in check due to high borrow costs. Now, with around 84% of Class A shares freed from lockup, multiple block trades are hitting the market. JPMorgan reportedly moved 5–6 million shares at roughly $97 each today, while Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs handled similar volumes, possibly bringing the day’s total to 18 million shares.
NVIDIA, CoreWeave’s IPO anchor investor, stepped in to soften the blow by adding about 95,100 shares last quarter, boosting its stake to over 24.27 million shares – worth around $2.4 billion at current prices. Yet the tight partnership between the two companies continues to draw scrutiny: CoreWeave uses NVIDIA’s equity investment to buy more GPUs from NVIDIA, and even uses those GPUs as collateral for further financing.
Investor confidence has also been shaken by CoreWeave’s latest earnings. While Q3 revenue of $1.21 billion beat expectations, operating income of $200 million was barely enough to match its $200 million interest expense. Analysts have also flagged slower backlog growth (excluding OpenAI), which rose just 4% QoQ. Still, total backlog has swelled to $30.1 billion from $25.9 billion in March, thanks largely to $4 billion in new OpenAI contracts.
Adding to the headwinds are looming geopolitical and policy risks, including potential U.S. semiconductor tariffs, which could further weigh on sentiment around AI and chip-related stocks. For CoreWeave, the challenge now is convincing investors it can sustain growth while managing mounting debt and navigating market volatility.