OpenAI Invests $11.9B in CoreWeave, Undercuts Microsoft
OpenAI has inked a staggering five-year, $11.9 billion deal with CoreWeave, a rapidly rising GPU-centric cloud provider. As part of the agreement, OpenAI is also acquiring $350 million worth of equity in CoreWeave — a move that not only secures cloud capacity but also gives OpenAI a strategic foothold in the infrastructure it relies on.
This isn't just another cloud deal — it’s a bold strategic maneuver with multiple implications. For starters, the investment comes as CoreWeave prepares for a high-stakes IPO. The company filed to go public last week, but has yet to price or set a date for its market debut. One of the red flags in its IPO pitch? A heavy dependence on Microsoft, which accounted for 62% of its revenue in 2024. That revenue hit $1.9 billion — an almost 8x jump from $228.9 million in 2023. Landing OpenAI as a second major client, particularly in such a high-dollar deal, could help alleviate investor concerns about overreliance on a single customer.
CoreWeave, backed by Nvidia (which owns 6%), operates a massive AI-focused cloud network. As of the end of 2024, it ran 250,000+ Nvidia GPUs across 32 data centers, and it’s since upgraded with Nvidia’s latest “Blackwell” chips tailored for AI reasoning workloads.
But the real intrigue lies in what this move signals about the evolving relationship between OpenAI and Microsoft.
The OpenAI–Microsoft Tension, Unpacked
On paper, OpenAI and Microsoft are close collaborators. Microsoft invested billions into OpenAI and has rights to a portion of its revenues. But behind the scenes, the relationship has grown increasingly complex — and competitive. Microsoft has been ramping up its own AI efforts, launching a family of models dubbed "MAI" designed to rival OpenAI’s. It even brought in Mustafa Suleyman, Altman’s longtime AI rival, to lead Microsoft AI.
Meanwhile, OpenAI has been pushing to diversify its infrastructure partners. In January, Microsoft ceased to be OpenAI’s exclusive cloud provider after the company announced a massive AI infrastructure partnership called “Stargate,” involving Oracle, SoftBank, and others. Just last week, Sam Altman publicly lamented that OpenAI was “out of GPUs.” This deal with CoreWeave solves that problem — and then some.
It’s a move that looks like Altman saw Microsoft’s dependence on CoreWeave and said, “Hold my beer.” Now OpenAI isn’t just a customer — it’s a stakeholder.
The Backstory: CoreWeave's Meteoric Rise
Founded by former hedge fund traders, CoreWeave started as a crypto mining operation. Since then, it’s transformed into one of the most talked-about AI cloud providers on the planet. But the path hasn’t been without controversy. The three co-founders have already sold off $488 million in shares — over $150 million each — and the company is carrying a staggering $7.9 billion in debt.
Still, if the IPO lands as planned and raises billions, CoreWeave says it will use some of that money to reduce its debt load. It’s an ambitious plan, but if recent growth is any indicator, not entirely out of reach.
Strategic Implications
This deal does more than just ensure OpenAI gets the compute resources it desperately needs — it signals a new phase of independence. As Microsoft continues to evolve from a partner to a potential competitor, OpenAI is laying the groundwork to secure its infrastructure, hedge its bets, and strengthen its leverage.
At the same time, CoreWeave has gone from GPU-rich crypto startup to one of the most valuable players in AI infrastructure — with OpenAI and Microsoft now positioned as rival tenants under the same digital roof.
And with billions flowing, GPUs stacking, and power dynamics shifting, one thing is clear: the AI infrastructure wars are just getting started.
