Microsoft withdrew from some of its agreements with cloud computing provider CoreWeave. This is because of delivery problems and missed deadlines. The Financial Times reports this based on anonymous sources.
According to the newspaper, Microsoft has several ongoing contracts with CoreWeave, from which it purchases computing power from data centers. This partnership is worth billions of dollars. CoreWeave, founded in 2017, provides access to data centers and powerful chips for AI workloads, mainly provided by Nvidia.
Competitor to Azure and AWS
CoreWeave is one of the most sought-after companies in the AI industry. The company provides enterprises with access to graphics processing units (GPUs) that power AI services. The Nvidia-backed company, which competes with cloud platforms such as Azure and AWS, is laying the groundwork for one of the largest IPOs in recent times. CoreWeave is seeking a valuation of more than $35 billion at its New York IPO, seeking to raise more than $3 billion, Techzine reported earlier. According to the Financial Times, Microsoft’s decision to terminate some contracts with CoreWeave is not related to a broader shift in its data center plans.
CoreWeave, Microsoft and Nvidia did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.
Update 3:30pm
After publication of this story, we received a formal statement from CoreWeave. We have included it in full below:
“We pride ourselves in our client partnerships and there have been no contract cancellations or walking away from commitments. Any claim to the contrary is false and misleading.”
Acquisition of Weights & Biases
On Tuesday, CoreWeave acquired AI developer platform Weights & Biases for an undisclosed amount as part of its strategy to expand its cloud platform offerings. Weights & Biases, based in San Francisco and accounting for more than $250 million in investment since its founding in 2017, built a platform that accelerates AI model development. It provides AI developers with comprehensive tools, including capabilities to manage training datasets, test model changes and solve technical problems
In addition, Weights & Biases offers specialized features. These include tools to correct hallucinations of AI models. The platform has been a great success and is said to be used by more than a million AI engineers, including professionals from OpenAI, Meta, Nvidia, Snowflake and Toyota. That possible acquisition for CoreWeave, for $1.7 billion, would fit in with CoreWeave’s efforts to go public.