CoreWeave's new plan: get customers to fund the AI arms race upfront.

Cloud infrastructure provider CoreWeave, which rents out the computing power needed for AI models, is shifting its financial strategy to fuel its explosive growth. Instead of relying on traditional loans, the company is now asking customers to pay for services upfront and is locking them into shorter, more expensive contracts. The company reported massive revenue growth alongside hefty losses and interest expenses.

The move signals a broader industry trend of passing infrastructure costs directly to Big Tech customers, but it comes with significant risks. CoreWeave is betting that today's voracious AI demand and pricing power will continue, locking itself into delivering services at prices that could look cheap if compute costs keep soaring. The takeaway is a familiar cycle: the AI gold rush is turning into a financing puzzle, with cloud providers scrambling to make customers foot the bill for their buildouts.