CoreWeave (CRWV) shares charged higher on Wednesday as the “AI Neocloud” specialist secured a major deal with one of the industry’s fastest-growing search disruptors — Perplexity AI. This multi-year strategic partnership will see Perplexity utilize CRWV’s dedicated GB200 NVL72 clusters to scale its Sonar and Search API ecosystem.
In return, the Livingston-headquartered firm will integrate Perplexity’s Enterprise Max across its operations. Despite today’s gains, CoreWeave stock remains down more than 25% versus its year-to-date high.
Does Perplexity News Warrant Buying CoreWeave Stock
The Perplexity news is constructive, as it shifts the narrative for CRWV stock from capital-intensive buildouts to high-margin execution.
Perplexity currently answers more than 1.5 billion questions monthly, and by choosing CoreWeave over traditional hyperscalers, the startup is validating the superior latency and reliability of its purpose-built AI infrastructure for real-world production.
Investors cheered the announcement as it focuses particularly on AI inference, which many believe will eventually become a larger market than model training.
By securing a flagship inference customer, CoreWeave is “diversifying” its revenue stream beyond experimental labs and into daily consumer application, opening the door for further gains in 2026.
What Makes CRWV Shares Attractive to Own in 2026
Long-term investors should consider investing in CRWV for the strength of its revenue backlog as well. In late February, the company reported a remarkable $67 billion backlog.
Meanwhile, its recent $5 billion agreement with Meta Platforms (META) further solidifies its role as a primary provider of the Nvidia (NVDA) GB300-powered infrastructure.
With a 3.1-gigawatt power pipeline, and a clear path to $30 billion in annual recurring revenue (ARR), CoreWeave is strongly positioned for long-term dominance in GPU-as-a-Service.
This is why options pricing currently signals a rally in CoreWeave shares to north of $100 by mid-May, which means the AI stock could gain nearly 30% within the next three months.
Wall Street Rates CoreWeave a ‘Buy’
Wall Street analysts also remain bullish on CRWV shares, especially after management guided for a 140% year-on-year increase in revenue to more than $12 billion this year.
The consensus rating on CoreWeave sits at “Moderate Buy” currently, with the mean target of $120 indicating potential upside of roughly 50% from here.
On the date of publication, Wajeeh Khan did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. For more information please view the Barchart Disclosure Policy here.
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