OpenAI announces 12 billion dollar strategic investment in CoreWeave to secure additional Nvidia GPU capacity and supply.

Microsoft has withdrawn from a nearly $12 billion option to purchase additional data-center capacity from AI hyperscaler CoreWeave, according to sources cited by the Financial Times. The decision came due to "delivery issues and missed deadlines" that undermined the tech giant's confidence in the company. However, Microsoft maintained that it still had "a number of ongoing contracts with CoreWeave and it remained an important partner." This move comes as CoreWeave prepares for a potentially $2.5 billion IPO in the coming weeks, while also contending with criticism from analysts like Jeffrey Emanuel, who has described the company as a "turkey" and the "WeWork of AI"—the same analyst whose viral essay about Nvidia being overpriced reportedly led to the chipmaker losing $600 billion in a single day.

CoreWeave disputed the withdrawal narrative, stating that "all of our contractual relationships continue as planned—nothing has been cancelled, and no one has walked away from their commitments." Shortly after these competing claims surfaced, reports indicated that OpenAI would assume Microsoft's nearly $12 billion option instead, potentially sparing CoreWeave from an embarrassing setback ahead of its closely watched IPO. Since Microsoft is CoreWeave's biggest customer and also OpenAI's largest backer, this arrangement means OpenAI is effectively paying CoreWeave "with money that is largely Microsoft's to begin with," as analyst Rohan Goswami at Semafor observed.

According to Goswami, this development should not be interpreted as Microsoft pulling back from AI investment. Satya Nadella stated on CNBC that the company remains committed, saying "We're good for our $80 billion." Rather, the shift reflects Microsoft being "more tactical about exactly when and where it spends." The underlying issue, Goswami argued, is structural: "The AI economy is currently a closed loop and will stay that way until a broader swath of economic actors like big and medium-sized companies start spending real dollars on AI software and services. Until then, nearly all the money is coming from a few companies—chiefly Nvidia and Microsoft—which themselves depend on the goodwill of their public shareholders to keep underwriting it all."