CoreWeave to Work With Nvidia-Backed Start-Up on Texas AI Data Center Project

CoreWeave said it was joining with Poolside, an artificial-intelligence start-up headquartered in France, to develop a data center in West Texas. (Dreamstime)

Key Points

• CoreWeave is collaborating with Poolside, an Nvidia-backed start-up, to develop a data center complex in West Texas for advanced AI cloud services.
• CoreWeave will provide over 40,000 graphics processing units and serve as the anchor tenant for Project Horizon’s first phase, a 250-megawatt data center.
• Following the announcement, CoreWeave’s shares increased by 4.6% to $140.26, while the S&P 500 index rose by 1.1%.

CoreWeave, the cloud computing company, said it was working with an Nvidia-backed start-up that plans to build a sprawling data center complex in West Texas.

The company announced Wednesday that it was working with Poolside, a French start-up, to “deliver advanced AI cloud services.” Under the terms of the agreement, CoreWeave will provide a cluster of Nvidia GB300 NVL72 systems including more than 40,000 graphics processing units, to power research and model training. The GPUs are set to come online beginning in December 2025, Poolside said.

Separately, CoreWeave plans to provide Poolside with cloud solutions for Project Horizon, a two-gigawatt data center campus located in Texas. CoreWeave will serve as the operational partner and so-called anchor tenant for the first phase of the project, which comprises 250 megawatts of gross power with an option to expand capacity by an additional 500 megawatts.

Shares climbed 3.7% to $138.97 on Wednesday following the announcement. The benchmark S&P 500 index was up 0.5%.

CoreWeave already has a presence in the region, including through its relationship with other data-center operators. Its pending acquisition of digital infrastructure company Core Scientific moves to a shareholder vote on Oct. 30, though the company already leases the majority of Core Scientific’s portfolio.

Evercore ISI analysts identified “several positives” around Wednesday’s announcement including an opportunity to diversify demand beyond Microsoft and OpenAI, two of CoreWeave’s largest partners.

The deal also provides CoreWeave with ample capacity to not just serve Poolside, but potentially other customers as well,” analysts wrote. Evercore maintained an Outperform rating and $175 price target on the shares.

Poolside is only the latest data-center developer to break into Texas. It’s part of a broader buildout in the region, where developers turn for large swaths of land and relatively cheap energy prices.

The West Texas site spans 500,000 acres and sits adjacent to the Permian Basin, a major natural gas hub, offering “direct access to abundant, low-cost natural gas and the physical capacity to scale to multi-gigawatt levels,” Poolside wrote in a blog post.

It explained that the West Texas facility was “the next logical step” for the company—“owning not just the intelligence layer, but the energy and compute foundation that supports it.”

Poolside develops large AI models to automate software engineering tasks. The start-up was founded in 2023, originally in the U.S., but has since shifted its headquarters to France. It has financial backing from companies like eBay and Nvidia, both of which participated in a Series B funding round in late 2024.

Also on Wednesday, Nvidia was named as a member of the investor consortium purchasing Aligned Data Centers from Macquarie Asset Management in a $40 billion deal. Aligned designs, builds, and operates data centers largely across the South and Midwest, including four facilities in Texas.

Write to Mackenzie Tatananni at mackenzie.tatananni@barrons.com