Subvolts take CoreWeave's infrastructure deals reveal the hidden backbone of the AI boom. Nov 13, 2025 - Developers
- Learn about the hardware infrastructure providers essential for training and running advanced AI models.
- Business
- Understand the financial underpinnings and major deals shaping the AI hardware market and its potential risks.
This episode provides a deep look into a critical, yet often unseen, company enabling the current AI revolution.
The company at the heart of the AI bubble
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From Subvolts
Summary and analysis by Subvolts editorial, AI-assisted.
Decoder features Verge reporter Liz Lopatto discussing CoreWeave, a company central to the AI boom. The episode explores CoreWeave's history, financials, and its role as a critical infrastructure provider for AI development. Lopatto's reporting examines the company's impact on the modern AI landscape and potential concerns about an AI spending bubble.
Imagine AI models are like super-smart brains needing massive computer power. CoreWeave builds and rents out these powerful computer centers. This episode explains how CoreWeave became essential for companies like OpenAI and Meta to train their AI.
This episode offers a deep dive into CoreWeave, a company powering much of the current AI boom. It's for anyone interested in the infrastructure behind AI development, from investors to tech enthusiasts. Understanding CoreWeave's business model and its significant deals with major AI players like Nvidia, Meta, and OpenAI provides crucial context for the rapid advancements and substantial investments happening across the AI frontier labs.
- HostNilay Patel
- GuestLiz Lopattosenior reporter, The Verge
- Guest: Liz Lopatto, Verge Senior Reporter
- Show: Decoder with Nilay Patel
- Length: 38 minutes
- CoreWeave deal with Meta: $14 billion
- CoreWeave deal with Nvidia: $6.3 billion
- CoreWeave deal with OpenAI: $6.5 billion
So a lot of people think AI is a bubble. So we sent Verge senior reporter Liz Lopatto out to report on the AI bubble — whether it's real, how it might pop, and what all of this means. She’s joining the show today to talk about a particular company that sits right in the middle of all of it. That company is called CoreWeave, and Liz has spent considerable time diving into its history, its financials, and the truly fascinating story that all of that tells us about the modern AI boom.
Links:
- CoreWeave CEO plays down concerns about AI-spending bubble | WSJ
- Why debt funding is ratcheting up the risks of the AI boom | NYT
- Inside the data centers that train AI and drain the electrical grid | The New Yorker
- How a crypto miner transformed Into the multibillion-dollar backbone of AI | Wired
- CoreWeave signs $14 billion AI infrastructure deal with Meta | Reuters
- CoreWeave, Nvidia sign $6.3 billion cloud computing capacity order | Reuters
- Nvidia turned CoreWeave into major player in AI years before saving its IPO | CNBC
- CoreWeave inks $6.5 billion deal with OpenAI | CNBC
- ‘Project Osprey:’ How Nvidia seeded CoreWeave’s rise | The Information
- For this startup, Nvidia GPUs are currency | The Verge
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Credits:
Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and edited by Ursa Wright. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.
The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.
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- GPU
- Liz Lopatto
- Graphics Processing Unit, a type of computer chip powerful for AI tasks.
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Questions people ask
- What is CoreWeave?
- CoreWeave is a company that provides the infrastructure, specifically data centers and computing power, needed to train AI models.
- What is the connection between CoreWeave and the AI bubble?
- CoreWeave sits at the heart of the AI boom, providing essential hardware. Its growth and massive deals raise questions about the sustainability of AI spending and potential bubble concerns.
Page generated Oct 19, 2026. Summaries are Subvolts' own; the audio, artwork and notes belong to The Verge.