CoreWeave co-founder explains how a closet of crypto-mining GPUs led to a $1.5B IPO

CoreWeave began trading on Friday with more of a shrug than a war cry. The company priced at $40 on Thursday, below the $47- $50 price range announced. It also trimmed the number of shares offered. All told, CoreWeave raised $1.5 billion and nabbed a $14 billion market cap on Day 1, instead of a hoped-for $3 billion+ raise and a much higher valuation. Shares also opened at $39 (ouch!), and closed at $40. A lukewarm reception. Still, the company’s IPO lands as the largest AI-related listing to date, and the biggest U.S. tech IPO since the heady days of 2021. Sitting in an ordinary white hoodie in a bland conference room, and talking with a detectable Jersey accent, Chief Strategy Officer Brian Venturo told TechCrunch that he feels very lucky. That’s because it all started when he and his hedge fund friends had some extra time on their hands after their last venture together went south. He had been working as portfolio manager for the energy industry hedge fund, Hudson Ridge, founde ... Read full article.