CoreWeave shares jumped around 14 per cent in pre-market trading on Wednesday after third-quarter revenue surged 168 per cent to $3.66bn (£2.8bn), beating analysts' forecasts and leading a broad recovery in AI stocks.

Nasdaq 100 futures rose 1.5 per cent and S&P 500 futures gained 0.6 per cent, reversing part of Tuesday's losses. Investors returned to technology names following a sharp sell-off last week, despite mounting scrutiny of Nvidia and persistent questions over the cost of the AI build-out.

What drove CoreWeave's breakout quarter?

The Nvidia-backed cloud computing firm, which supplies computing power to AI developers including Anthropic, raised its full-year revenue forecast to between $13bn and $13.3bn. Its quarterly loss of $1.27 per share came in smaller than expected.

Chief executive Michael Intrator dubbed the period a "breakout quarter". The company expects around $9bn in customer prepayments and deposits over the next three months, a figure that signals contracted demand for its data centre capacity ahead.

The results eased concerns about CoreWeave's finances. Its shares had fallen more than 40 per cent over the past month amid questions over the debt funding its data centre expansion. CoreWeave carried $35.6bn in debt at the end of June, and the cost of insuring its borrowing against default (credit default swaps, instruments that price the risk of a borrower failing to repay) has risen sharply.

Susannah Streeter, chief investment strategist at Wealth Club, said the results had "sparked an uptick in enthusiasm for AI-focused stocks", although high debt levels and complex financing arrangements remained a concern.

The recovery spread to other AI infrastructure companies, including Nebius and Iren, as investors weighed strong customer demand against the cost of building new data centres.

How high can Anthropic's valuation climb?

Bankers working on Anthropic's initial public offering (a flotation in which shares are sold to public investors for the first time) reportedly considered increasing its valuation to $1.5 trillion or more following strong demand from investors.

The Claude developer outlined plans on Tuesday to sell 825 million shares at between $70 and $78 each, potentially raising $64.4bn and valuing the company at around $1.4 trillion. UK investors can take part in the share sale.

A further $26bn investment from technology companies including Google, Microsoft and Nvidia is planned alongside the flotation. Nvidia is reportedly committing $10bn, a figure that highlights the close financial ties between AI developers and the companies supplying their computing infrastructure.

Anthropic has disclosed nearly $900bn in future computing commitments. Rival OpenAI reportedly generated $10bn in third-quarter revenue, up almost 50 per cent on the previous quarter — a comparison that underlines the scale of cash generation now flowing through the sector's largest private firms.

Why is Nvidia under investigation?

Nvidia shares rose around five per cent in pre-market trading on Wednesday after losing approximately $430bn in market value over two sessions. The fall followed revelations about chief executive Jensen Huang's affair with a woman suspected of links to Chinese intelligence.

The chipmaker has appointed law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz and former federal prosecutor Joon Kim to investigate whether company information or national security was compromised. Nvidia has said it has no reason to believe confidential information was compromised.

The company also faces a proposed shareholder lawsuit. Morgan Stanley removed Nvidia from its top stock picks on Wednesday, a decision that adds institutional weight to the governance questions now surrounding the chipmaker.

What does the rally mean for AI infrastructure debt?

Wednesday's rebound rests on a narrow foundation: one strong earnings print from CoreWeave and reported excess demand for Anthropic's flotation. CoreWeave's $35.6bn debt load, the rising cost of insuring that borrowing, and the more than 40 per cent share decline of the past month all remain unresolved.

Streeter's caution captures the balance. Enthusiasm has returned, but high debt levels and complex financing arrangements at the sector's infrastructure providers have not gone away.

The numbers investors will watch next are concrete: CoreWeave's forecast of between $13bn and $13.3bn in full-year revenue, the roughly $9bn in prepayments expected within three months, and the final pricing of Anthropic's 825 million shares — which will determine whether the mooted $1.5 trillion valuation holds.