CoreWeave, a provider of specialized cloud services, announced on April 20 that it had secured $221 million in a Series B funding round, placing the company in a position to expand operations and increase capacity in various emerging technologies.
Magnetar Capital led the funding round, which NVIDIA and Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross supplemented. Magnetar Capital provided CoreWeave with a $50 million investment in November 2021.
CoreWeave states that the funds will expand its cloud infrastructure for computational workloads such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, visual effects, rendering, batch processing, and pixel streaming. Michael Intrato, CEO and co-founder, stated that NVIDIA’s support would assist the company’s expansion.
CoreWeave was founded in 2017 and uses cloud technology to scale graphics processing unit (GPU) computational resources that, according to the company, are “35 times faster and 80% less expensive” than rival solutions. Initially, the company was an Ethereum miner, using GPUs to validate transactions on the proof-of-work blockchain.
In September 2022, Ethereum completed the long-awaited Merge upgrade, transitioning the network from the prior proof-of-work protocol to proof-of-stake. The action deemed Ethereum mining obsolete and GPUs used for Ethereum mining. However, CoreWeave suspended its Ethereum mining operations well before the completion of the Merge.
