Neither AWS nor Azure. The 'Neo-Cloud' Meta Bet On: CoreWeave

The AI development currently sweeping the technology industry is often compared to the 19th-century gold rush. The key to success in this race is not the 'gold mine' of AI models themselves, but the 'pickaxes' used to dig for them—namely, computing infrastructure centered on GPUs. OpenAI research indicates that AI computing demand doubles every 3.4 months, and the thirst for GPUs shows no signs of stopping. Under these circumstances, the 'merchant' that has rapidly emerged following GPU manufacturer NVIDIA is the subject of this report: CoreWeave.

CoreWeave's rise is more than just a commercial success. AI infrastructure is now at the heart of the technological hegemony struggle between the U.S. and China, becoming a strategic asset that dictates national competitiveness. Data centers are viewed as the 'ports of the digital age,' and access to high-performance semiconductors is directly linked to national security. This geopolitical tension acts as a tailwind for strengthening domestic AI infrastructure in the U.S., creating an extremely favorable business environment for the U.S.-based CoreWeave.

The supply bottleneck, where even giant tech companies cannot satisfy the explosive demand for GPUs on their own, has fueled CoreWeave's rise. Founded in 2017 as a cryptocurrency mining company, it foresaw the arrival of the AI boom and pivoted to a cloud computing business. By leveraging its strong relationship with NVIDIA to secure priority access to cutting-edge GPUs, it has become an indispensable partner for giant tech companies starving for computing resources.

In this report, we will thoroughly analyze how CoreWeave, an infrastructure company supporting the AI-era gold rush, has secured massive contracts from giant tech companies one after another to establish its position as the 'third pole' in the AI infrastructure market, examining its strategies, strengths, and the risks associated with its future.