CoreWeave's Stock Sank 15% on Debt Fears. One Investor Says Its $52 Billion in Obligations Is Backed by Microsoft and OpenAI

CoreWeave, one of the AI infrastructure companies known as "neoclouds" for renting out GPU computing capacity to AI firms, saw its stock drop more than 15% on October 16 as bond-market concerns about its debt load resurfaced. The company went public in March 2025.

Evan Schlossman, a principal at Neostellar Capital Corp, pushed back on the selloff. His firm bought a $25 million stake in CoreWeave in 2024 and sold 40% of it for a $15 million gain in the second quarter of 2025, giving it a direct stake in how the debt story plays out. Schlossman argued the company can comfortably service its obligations because its revenue comes from noncancelable "take-or-pay" contracts with what he described as "extremely high-credit-worthy customers."

The numbers behind the debate are large on both sides of the ledger. In the first half of 2026, CoreWeave reported $4.6 billion in revenue against $16.3 billion in operating lease liabilities and $35.6 billion in total debt, putting combined debt and lease commitments around $52 billion; the company posted a $1.4 billion net loss over the same period. Its remaining performance obligations stand at $103.7 billion, with 41% of that due by 2028. Microsoft and OpenAI are among its largest customers, its top three customers accounted for 72% of second-quarter revenue, and 98% of revenue came from committed contracts, the piece of the business Schlossman points to as his main justification for confidence.

Skeptics see the same concentration differently. Gartner has estimated that 80% of neocloud providers will stop operating independently by 2030, and CoreWeave's bond yields have climbed as high as 15%, a sign that debt investors are demanding a steep risk premium. Accountant Francine McKenna offered a blunter version of the concern, warning that "Microsoft is ruthless, and will eat CoreWeave for lunch," a nod to the leverage a handful of giant customers can hold over a supplier that depends so heavily on them.