CoreWeave Is Investing in AI Start-Ups. The Stock Is Rising.

CoreWeave stock has more than doubled from it IPO price. (Courtesy CoreWeave)

CoreWeave stock was rising Tuesday after the cloud-computing infrastructure company launched an initiative to invest in companies developing artificial-intelligence technology.

The new investment arm, CoreWeave Ventures, will support companies through direct capital investment, compute-for-equity deals, technical collaborations, testing opportunities, and more, the company said. CoreWeave Ventures has already begun work with some start-ups, such as AI cinematography developer Moonvalley.

CoreWeave shares were up 6.3% to $99.41 in premarket trading.

The move into venture investing diversifies CoreWeave’s bets on the AI boom. Since its March initial public offering, the cloud company has emerged as a pure AI play: Its core business is renting out AI servers to clients such as Microsoft . That focus on AI has paid off: CoreWeave’s stock has more than doubled from its $40 IPO price.

Investor may also have been encouraged by news that Nebius Group reached a $19.4 billion deal to provide AI infrastructure to Microsoft. While Nebius is a smaller competitor of CoreWeave’s, its success may be a good omen for continued AI investment from large technology companies.

Write to Nate Wolf at nate.wolf@barrons.com