AI Demand Fuels CoreWeave’s Meteoric 276% Rally in 2025
CoreWeave (CRWV) shares skyrocketed 25% on Tuesday, adding another 5% in pre-market trading, following the announcement of a landmark $7 billion data center infrastructure deal with Applied Digital. The move brings CoreWeave’s year-to-date gains to a staggering 276%, cementing its status as one of 2025’s top AI cloud-computing performers.
The AI-focused cloud provider signed two 15-year leases for 250 megawatts (MW) of IT load at Applied Digital’s high-performance computing (HPC) campus in Ellendale, North Dakota.
The first 100MW data center is expected to go live in Q4 2025, while a second 150MW facility is slated for mid-2026. CoreWeave also retains options to lease up to 300MW more, potentially bringing total contracted capacity to 550MW.
Applied Digital estimates the total deal value at $7 billion, underlining the scale of investment in AI infrastructure.
Ellendale Campus Becomes Strategic AI Infrastructure Hub
Applied Digital’s Ellendale site is designed to support 400MW of critical IT load, with over 1 gigawatt of power capacity currently under review. The project represents a major milestone for both companies as they race to meet rising demand for AI and machine learning computing power.
CEO Wes Cummins called the deal a key step toward making Applied Digital a central player in the HPC and AI infrastructure ecosystem.
To expedite development, Applied Digital recently secured $375 million in financing from SMBC, reflecting growing confidence from institutional investors in the company’s role in powering next-generation AI workloads.
Investor Sentiment Soars on Long-Term AI Bet
The CoreWeave-Applied Digital partnership is being hailed as a strategic alignment in the booming AI cloud space, which continues to attract substantial capital and attention.
As generative AI adoption accelerates, infrastructure players like CoreWeave are positioning themselves to capitalize on massive computing demands from enterprise and research customers.
CoreWeave’s rapid rise and aggressive capacity expansion echo broader market enthusiasm for companies enabling AI and high-performance compute ecosystems.
Conclusion
With CoreWeave’s stock up nearly 3x year-to-date and its strategic footprint expanding rapidly, the $7B Ellendale deal signals long-term growth potential driven by AI infrastructure demand. Market observers now see the company as a key player in the AI data center arms race.