Three months after a tepid public offering that almost didn’t happen, a surge in CoreWeave Inc.’s stock has vaulted its chief executive officer into the ranks of the world’s 500 richest people — and lifted five other longtime backers’ stakes into the billions.
The AI cloud-computing provider has gained almost 300% since its March IPO, pushing CEO Michael Intrator’s net worth to US$10.3 billion ($13.12 billion), according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. That makes him the 311th-richest person in the world, ahead of New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and Blackstone Inc. President Jon Gray.
The gain, which puts CoreWeave among the 30 best-performing stocks on the Nasdaq Composite Index since it went public, symbolises the hot run IPOs have been on this year after a slow start. Stocks of newly public companies are surging in their first sessions at the fastest pace since 2021, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, minting new billionaires such as Circle Internet Group Inc. co-founder Jeremy Allaire and Webull Corp. co-founders Anquan Wang and Jun Yuan.
Still, Intrator’s wealth gain stands out for its speed: On average, members of Bloomberg’s wealth index have taken three years and four months to grow their fortune from US$5 billion to US$10 billion. Intrator accomplished the feat in 12 days.
A CoreWeave spokesperson declined to comment on Intrator’s net worth.
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All amounts here are in USD. Chart: Bloomberg
CoreWeave’s rally has lifted the fortunes of its co-founders, too. Brian Venturo, the company’s chief strategy officer, is now worth US$6.4 billion. Brannin McBee, the company’s chief development officer, has a US$4.7 billion fortune, according to Bloomberg’s wealth index.
Early investors have also benefited: Filings show that a trust owned by Leslie Wexner, the billionaire founder of Bath & Body Works owner L Brands, holds a US$2.9 billion stake after investing in CoreWeave during its seed round in 2019, while board member Jack Cogen owns shares worth US$3.4 billion. Cogen previously led Natsource Asset Management, the firm where Intrator and Venturo met before starting CoreWeave, and served as a director for Intrator’s natural gas hedge fund, Hudson Ridge Asset Management.
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Stephen Jamison, another early investor who served on CoreWeave’s board until April 2023, owns a stake in the company worth about US$2.9 billion, filings show. Jamison, a former Morgan Stanley trader, previously ran a macro commodity hedge fund before converting it to a family office in 2019. He invested in CoreWeave’s seed round that same year alongside Wexner, buying shares at a US$9 million post-money valuation, according to Pitchbook data.
IPO market
Livingston, New Jersey-based CoreWeave’s March IPO was a poster child for what was at the time being cast as a sleepy year for public offerings. It initially sought a US$35 billion valuation but settled for US$23 billion after cutting its offering price. Intrator told Bloomberg News at the time that the deal wouldn’t have closed without a US$250 million order from Nvidia Corp., already one of CoreWeave’s largest investors.
The stock began to climb when CoreWeave beat revenue estimates in its first quarterly earnings report last month, and surged 22% to a record high days later after Nvidia disclosed it had increased its stake by more than a third. The company has earned meme-stock comparisons, with data suggesting it was generating significant demand from retail investors.
That’s made it a tough stock to bet against, with short sellers sitting on US$2.1 billion in paper losses through Wednesday’s close, according to data from S3 Partners LLC.
The IPO market has strengthened since CoreWeave’s tepid debut. Companies listing on US exchanges have raised US$29.1 billion so far this year, up from US$20.1 billion in the same period in 2024. Newly listed US companies are up an average of nearly 53% in their first day of trading, handily beating new listings in Asia and Europe.
Three companies raising at least US$50 million on US exchanges this year have more than doubled on their first trading day, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
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Circle founder Allaire saw his fortune jump to more than US$1.7 billion on the day of the stablecoin issuer’s IPO after the stock popped 168%. It was up 541% from its offering price through Wednesday, boosting Allaire’s fortune to US$4 billion.
Conservative media outlet Newsmax Inc. surged 735% in its IPO, giving founder and CEO Christopher Ruddy a US$3.3 billion fortune. The stock hasn’t held onto its initial retail-fueled frenzy, however, and Ruddy has fallen out of the billionaire ranks.
Not every new IPO has been a success: Omada Health Inc. raised US$150 million and its stock rose 21% in its early June trading debut. Since then, shares have dropped below the offering price.
