Specialized Cloud Provider CoreWeave Raises $221M in Series B Funding

CoreWeave Inc., a GPU-focused cloud computing startup, has locked down $221 million in Series B funding to expand the NJ-based company’s data centers and cloud infrastructure.

The round was led by Magnetar Capital, which pumped in $111 million, while Nvidia contributed the remaining portion along with GitHub CEO Nat Friedman and former Apple executive Daniel Gross. The funding brings the total raised so far to $371 million.

Founded in 2017, the startup initially began as an Ethereum mining venture. One of the co-founders, Brian Venturo, bought Nvidia GPUs from insolvent crypto-mining farms at affordable prices. Initially, the company focused solely on crypto applications, but later it pivoted to general-purpose computing and generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies.

The company’s goal is timely given the explosion of interest in generative AI that started with OpenAI’s release of the chatbot ChatGPT. “CoreWeave is uniquely positioned to power the seemingly overnight boom in AI technology with our ability to innovate and iterate more quickly than the hyper-scalers,” said co-founder and Chief Executive Michael Intrator.

The cloud infrastructure can be tapped for numerous use cases including visual effects rendering, machine learning and AI, large-scale batch processing and pixel streaming, which the company claims can be processed up to 35 times faster at 80% less cost than on a generalized public cloud.