CoreWeave, Nebius Drop Nearly 5% as Microsoft's $45.2 Billion Capex Miss Hits Neoclouds
Updated
Updated · CNBC · Oct 28
CoreWeave, Nebius Drop Nearly 5% as Microsoft's $45.2 Billion Capex Miss Hits Neoclouds
3 articles · Updated · CNBC · Oct 28
Summary
CoreWeave and Nebius fell almost 5% in extended trading after Microsoft reported quarterly capex and finance leases of $45.2 billion, below the $50.7 billion analysts expected.
Microsoft said the shortfall reflected timing differences and a lower mix of finance leases, but investors read it as a sign infrastructure partners are taking longer to bring new data-center capacity online.
Azure revenue still jumped 48% from a year earlier, underscoring that demand remains strong even as spending cadence and capacity delivery look uneven; IREN dropped about 3% as the concern spread.
The selloff hit a sector already under pressure from higher rates and tighter funding fears: Microsoft has a nearly $20 billion Nebius deal through the 2030s and is also a major CoreWeave customer.
Pressure on neoclouds widened after Alphabet also missed capex estimates, while Gartner recently forecast 80% of neocloud companies will be absorbed or shut by 2030.
Did Microsoft’s capex miss expose a real slowdown in AI buildouts, or just delays, lease accounting shifts, and power bottlenecks hitting neocloud stocks?
Is the real risk for neocloud firms falling AI demand—or a more dangerous mix of debt, grid constraints, and project delays?