00:00a three-month jump of 168%, and still the financing question hangs over the business.
00:05That's the tension facing CoreWeave, NVIDIA's largest neocloud operator, as it reports earnings.
00:11The numbers beat expectations. Yet the debt load keeps growing faster than the revenue.
00:16Some numbers matter more than others today. Chip-backed loans, customer prepayments,
00:21and a policy shock that could stall the entire AI build-out. Stay with me.
00:25It's Thursday, November 12th. Let's look at a business story shaping corporate Korea.
00:30NVIDIA's chips are flowing into China through a network that U.S. export controls were supposed
00:34to block. Alice Huang, the wife of Jensen Huang, reportedly helped move at least $7.5 billion
00:41worth, roughly $10 trillion one, of NVIDIA chips into China. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve is
00:47debating whether to push its December rate hike to 50 basis points. Wall Street is pricing in a hike,
00:52but not a big one. Not yet. Here's what the numbers show.
00:55CoreWeave posted third-quarter revenue of $3.66 billion, up 168 percent from a year earlier,
01:02beating the LSEG consensus of $3.55 billion. The company raised its full-year revenue guidance to
01:08between $13.0 and $13.3 billion, and lifted its capital expenditure target to between $37 and $39
01:16billion. Its backlog grew from $104.2 billion to $132.5 billion in a single quarter, but total debt
01:24climbed from $35.1 billion to $46.9 billion in just three months, and net losses widened from $110
01:32million to $709 million. Its unsecured bonds, with a 9.625 percent coupon, traded up to a 15 percent
01:40yield last month. That's not an interest bill problem yet, but it signals what new borrowing
01:45will cost. CEO Michael Intrator says the company will not raise money in the unsecured bond market
01:51at current yields. Instead, it plans chip-backed loans at roughly 7 to 7.5 percent. Those chip-backed
01:57loans now face a regulatory obstacle. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange had planned futures contracts
02:03tied to NVIDIA H100 and B200 rental prices. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission has blocked
02:09that launch, removing a key hedging tool. Headline CPI rose 0.4 percent, and core rose 0.3 percent,
02:17right at his threshold. Energy prices are easing, but transport services, food, and housing costs
02:23keep climbing. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said the central
02:27bank should consider a 50-basis-point hike in December if October core CPI comes in around 0.3 percent
02:34or higher. Chip smuggling is also reshaping the export control story. Financial Times
02:39reporting says the Pentagon and State Department wanted to add the mega-speed network to a
02:43restricted entity list, but the Commerce Department delayed that action. Meanwhile,
02:48the Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick reportedly received a warning about Alice Wong before President
02:53Trump's May trip to China. Commerce still approved H200 purchases for about 10 Chinese companies on May
02:5914. So what does this mean for leaders weighing where to put capital next year? Earlier, we said
03:04core weave's growth is real, but the financing bill is coming due. Here's what that actually means for
03:09you. If your supply chain runs through AI infrastructure, the cost of capital is no
03:13longer a background variable. It's a strategic one. Second, export control gaps are no longer
03:19hypothetical. They are changing where chips end up and who can use them. Third, watch the Fed. A
03:2550-basis-point hike would reprice every long-duration investment decision your board is discussing right
03:30now. Wait for the December rate decision, then reprice long-duration bets. That's today's AI Prism.
03:36CEO. This episode was produced with AI assistance based on Seoul Economic Daily reporting.
03:42AI Prism is a Juan IFRA award-winning series. We'll be back tomorrow.
