CoreWeave vs Microsoft: Revenue, Profit and Business Model
CoreWeave reported $5.1B of revenue in FY2025 and a net loss of $1.2B. Microsoft reported $331.8B of revenue in FY2026 and $133.7B of net income.
Latest financial snapshot
Financial summary
CoreWeave
CoreWeave's revenue was $229 million in 2023, $1.92 billion in 2024 and $5.13 billion in 2025, with a 2025 net loss of about $1.17 billion. Q2 2026 revenue was $2.575 billion versus $1.212 billion a year earlier; adjusted EBITDA was $1.51 billion (59% margin) but GAAP net loss widened to $626 million because of $640 million of net interest expense. The company raised 2026 revenue guidance to $12.4-$13.2 billion and expects an annualized revenue run-rate of $18.5-$19.5 billion by year-end. Total debt was roughly $35.1 billion at June 30, 2026, and market capitalization was about $44 billion in mid-September 2026.
Microsoft
Microsoft's FY2026 revenue rose 17.8% to $331.8 billion, operating income rose 21% to $155.2 billion, and GAAP net income rose 31% to $133.7 billion. Fourth-quarter revenue was $90.0 billion (up 18%) with net income of $35.8 billion, helped by a $3.2 billion gain on its Anthropic investment. Microsoft Cloud revenue reached $59.3 billion in Q4, up 27%. The main pressure point is capital intensity: AI data center spending has pushed free cash flow growth well below earnings growth.
Revenue and profit by year
CoreWeave
| Year | Revenue | Net income | Margin | Growth | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | $5.1B | -$1.2B | -22.7% | +167.9% | Source |
| FY2024 | $1.9B | -$863M | -45.1% | +736.2% | Source |
| FY2023 | $229M | -$594M | -259.4% | — | Source |
Microsoft
| Year | Revenue | Net income | Margin | Growth | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2026 | $331.8B | $133.7B | 40.3% | +17.8% | Source |
| FY2025 | $281.7B | $101.8B | 36.1% | +14.9% | Source |
| FY2024 | $245.1B | $88.1B | 36.0% | +15.7% | Source |
| FY2023 | $211.9B | $72.4B | 34.1% | +6.9% | Source |
| FY2022 | $198.3B | $72.7B | 36.7% | +18.0% | Source |
| FY2021 | $168.1B | $61.3B | 36.5% | +17.5% | Source |
| FY2020 | $143B | $44.3B | 31.0% | +13.6% | Source |
| FY2019 | $125.8B | $39.2B | 31.2% | +14.0% | Source |
| FY2018 | $110.4B | $16.6B | 15.0% | +14.3% | Source |
| FY2017 | $96.6B | $25.5B | 26.4% | — | Source |
Where the revenue comes from
CoreWeave
- Committed GPU capacity contracts
Majority of revenue
Multi-year take-or-pay contracts for dedicated GPU clusters with AI labs, hyperscalers and enterprises.
- On-demand compute
Not disclosed
Usage-based access to GPU and CPU instances for shorter training, fine-tuning and inference jobs.
- Storage, networking, inference and software
Not disclosed
AI object storage, managed inference (over $100 million ARR as of Q2 2026) and developer tools such as Weights & Biases.
Microsoft
- Productivity And Business ProcessesMajor
Office, Microsoft 365, LinkedIn, Dynamics, and related cloud services.
- Intelligent CloudMajor
Azure, server products, enterprise services, and cloud infrastructure.
- More Personal ComputingMajor
Windows, devices, gaming, search, and advertising.
- AI Services And CopilotsGrowth
AI features and model-powered services embedded across Azure, Microsoft 365, GitHub, security, and developer tools.
Business model and strategy
CoreWeave
How it makes money
CoreWeave makes money by renting GPU compute, plus storage, networking and software, to AI developers. Most revenue comes from multi-year committed contracts in which a customer reserves a dedicated cluster and pays for it whether or not it is fully used; a smaller share is on-demand usage.
Growth strategy
CoreWeave grows by signing large multi-year contracts first and then financing and building the capacity to serve them. In 2025-2026 it expanded deals with OpenAI (initially about $11.9 billion over five years, later enlarged), Meta (including a $21 billion expansion announced in April 2026) and Anthropic, and broadened its enterprise base with customers such as Caterpillar, Bentley Systems and Databricks.
Competitive advantage
CoreWeave's edge is speed of deployment at scale. It is consistently among the first clouds to bring up new NVIDIA systems (first commercial GB200 NVL72 in early 2025, first GB300 NVL72 in July 2025, and first Vera Rubin NVL72 bring-up in 2026), and its Kubernetes-native platform and Mission Control software are built only for GPU clusters. NVIDIA is also a shareholder, adding a $2 billion investment in January 2026.
Microsoft
How it makes money
Microsoft reports three segments. Intelligent Cloud covers Azure, SQL Server, Windows Server, GitHub, Nuance, and enterprise services; server products and cloud services alone brought in $129.4 billion in FY2026, and Azure passed $100 billion in annual revenue for the first time.
Growth strategy
Microsoft's growth plan centers on AI capacity and AI subscriptions. It is spending heavily on data centers and chips to meet Azure demand that management says remains capacity constrained, and it is selling Microsoft 365 Copilot as a paid add-on, which passed 30 million paid seats by the end of FY2026.
Competitive advantage
Microsoft's main advantage is distribution inside enterprises. Identity (Entra), email and documents (Microsoft 365), collaboration (Teams), developer tools (GitHub, Visual Studio), and cloud infrastructure (Azure) are often bought together, which raises switching costs and lets Microsoft attach new products such as Copilot to existing contracts.
Questions about CoreWeave vs Microsoft
Which company has higher revenue — CoreWeave, Inc. or Microsoft Corporation?
CoreWeave, Inc. reported $5.1B (FY2025), while Microsoft Corporation reported $331.8B (FY2026). By last reported revenue, Microsoft Corporation is the larger business, with CoreWeave, Inc. reporting a smaller revenue base. Note: these are from different fiscal years and are not a direct like-for-like comparison.
What is the market cap of CoreWeave, Inc. vs Microsoft Corporation?
CoreWeave, Inc.'s market capitalisation stands at $44.0B, while Microsoft Corporation's is $3.83T. Microsoft Corporation carries the higher market valuation, reflecting investors' expectations of its future earnings power relative to CoreWeave, Inc..
Which is more financially efficient — CoreWeave, Inc. or Microsoft Corporation?
CoreWeave, Inc. generates $2.34M / employee in revenue per employee, while Microsoft Corporation generates $1.49M / employee. CoreWeave, Inc. shows higher revenue efficiency per headcount, though this reflects business model differences — capital-light software companies routinely outperform labour-intensive manufacturers on this metric.
How do CoreWeave, Inc. and Microsoft Corporation make money?
CoreWeave, Inc. and Microsoft Corporation generate revenue in fundamentally different ways. CoreWeave, Inc.: CoreWeave makes money by renting GPU compute, plus storage, networking and software, to AI developers. Microsoft Corporation: Microsoft reports three segments.
Which company is valued higher relative to revenue — CoreWeave, Inc. or Microsoft Corporation?
On a price-to-sales (P/S) basis, CoreWeave, Inc. trades at 8.6x P/S and Microsoft Corporation at 11.5x P/S. Microsoft Corporation commands a higher revenue multiple, typically indicating that investors expect faster growth or higher future margins compared to CoreWeave, Inc.. A higher multiple is not inherently better — it may also signal that the stock is priced for perfection.
Is CoreWeave, Inc. bigger than Microsoft Corporation?
By last reported revenue, Microsoft Corporation ($331.8B (FY2026)) is the larger company compared to CoreWeave, Inc. ($5.1B (FY2025)). Revenue scale is one dimension of size — market capitalisation, employee count, and geographic reach are also relevant depending on the context.
Figures come from each company's filings and the sources linked beside them. Amounts reported in another currency are shown in US dollars at an approximate rate and marked with ~. Back to the CoreWeave vs Microsoft overview