CoreWeave Investors Sell $1bn Shares Post-IPO Lock-up
The expiration of CoreWeave’s initial public offering (IPO) lock-up period has triggered a significant wave of share sales by early investors, with more than $1 billion worth of stock changing hands. This liquidity event, which commenced on August 14, 2025, saw a substantial portion of the AI cloud hyperscaler’s Class A shares, up to 83%, become available for trading, allowing insiders and major shareholders to monetize their holdings after months of restriction.
Among the most prominent sellers is Jack Cogen, a director at CoreWeave, who has signaled his intent to offload approximately 3 million shares with an aggregate market value of around $300 million. This comes after previous sales by Cogen, including transactions totaling about $62.67 million in March 2025 and November 2024. His recent activity also includes the sale of 240,000 shares on August 14, 2025, generating $21.7 million.
CoreWeave, a pivotal player in providing specialized cloud infrastructure for demanding artificial intelligence workloads, made its public debut on March 28, 2025, listing on the Nasdaq under the ticker “CRWV.” The IPO was priced at $40.00 per share, raising $1.5 billion. Following its market entry, CoreWeave’s stock experienced a remarkable ascent, soaring from its IPO price to a peak of $183 per share by mid-June 2025, delivering substantial gains for initial investors.
However, the period leading up to and immediately following the lock-up expiration has been tumultuous for CoreWeave’s stock. The shares plunged by 20% after the company reported its second-quarter 2025 earnings, despite showcasing an impressive 207% year-over-year revenue increase. This downturn was exacerbated by a further 10% drop as the lock-up period concluded, bringing the stock below the $100 mark. Analysts currently hold mixed ratings on CoreWeave, with an average price target of $120.10.
CoreWeave’s rapid growth has been fueled by its strategic focus on Nvidia GPUs, which are critical for AI development. The company has secured high-profile clientele, including Microsoft, which accounted for over 60% of CoreWeave’s revenue in 2024, and OpenAI, with whom CoreWeave signed a five-year, $12 billion cloud-computing contract in March 2025. Other notable clients include IBM and Meta. The company’s valuation has surged in recent years, reaching $19 billion in May 2024 and further increasing to $23 billion during a $650 million secondary share sale in November 2024, which attracted investors like Jane Street, Magnetar, Fidelity Management, and Macquarie Capital.
In addition to its core business, CoreWeave has been active on the mergers and acquisitions front. In March 2025, it acquired AI platform developer Weights & Biases for approximately $1.7 billion. More recently, the company pursued a $9 billion offer to acquire Core Scientific, a deal that has reportedly faced resistance from some Core Scientific investors who are pushing for improved terms.
The current wave of insider selling, while anticipated, underscores the significant gains realized by early investors in CoreWeave, even as the company navigates market volatility and strategic acquisitions in the intensely competitive AI infrastructure landscape.