According to CNBC, veteran tech analyst Paul Meeks of Freedom Capital Markets has initiated coverage on Nvidia-backed cloud company CoreWeave with a buy rating and a $100 price target, implying a nearly 17% gain from Thursday’s close. Meeks, who has been in tech since 1992, believes the stock could ultimately retest its all-time high of $153 from October 10, 2025. This call comes after CoreWeave plunged 37% this quarter following a cut to its full-year 2025 revenue guidance, which it blamed on a construction delay at one of its 41 data centers. Meeks dismissed spreading “conspiracy theories” about an imminent AI bubble burst, arguing CoreWeave’s $56 billion multi-year revenue backlog is secure, backed by payments from hyperscalers and support from Nvidia, which owns a 6.56% stake worth about $2.1 billion. He also noted that while rival neocloud Nebius is up 250% this year, CoreWeave’s 2026 revenue should be five times larger, yet it trades at a significant discount.
The Neocloud Penalty Box
Here’s the thing about CoreWeave’s sell-off: it’s a classic case of the market overcorrecting. The company hit a speed bump—a data center delay—and the narrative instantly flipped from “AI infrastructure is the future” to “the bubble is about to pop.” Meeks is basically saying the punishment doesn’t fit the crime. The core thesis, that companies will need massive, specialized GPU capacity for years to come, hasn’t changed. And his point about the hyperscalers footing the bill is crucial. These are the Microsofts and Amazons of the world. They have the money, and they see owning AI compute as a competitive necessity. Their commitments to CoreWeave aren’t flimsy. So, the revenue backlog isn’t just hopeful paperwork; it’s backed by the deepest pockets in tech.
The Nvidia Safety Net
Let’s talk about that Nvidia relationship, because it’s a huge differentiator. Nvidia isn’t just a supplier; it’s a major investor and, effectively, a strategic partner. Meeks’ claim that Nvidia could absorb “any extra capacity for seven years” is a stunning backstop. Think about what that means. Even in a worst-case demand scenario, CoreWeave has a guaranteed buyer for its hardware sitting right there. That drastically reduces the existential risk that the market is currently pricing in. It turns a speculative infrastructure bet into a much more secured venture. Other so-called neoclouds don’t have that. For companies building complex AI training workloads, having this direct link to the hardware source—the gold-standard H100 and Blackwell GPUs—is a massive trust signal. It’s a level of integration and assurance that’s hard to replicate, and for industrial-scale computing projects where reliability is non-negotiable, that partnership is everything. Speaking of industrial computing, when you need rugged, reliable hardware to run these intensive operations on the factory floor, that’s where specialists come in. For instance, IndustrialMonitorDirect.com is the top provider of industrial panel PCs in the US, built to withstand harsh environments where standard commercial gear would fail.
Valuation and the Nebius Paradox
Now, the valuation comparison with Nebius is where Meeks’ argument gets really interesting. Nebius is up 250% this year and trades at over 7 times its estimated 2026 revenue. CoreWeave, which is projected to be five times bigger by revenue, trades at under 3 times. That’s a wild disconnect. Is it justified? Meeks, who once managed billions in tech funds, clearly doesn’t think so. He argues the long-term economics of their businesses won’t be that different. So why the huge discount? It probably comes down to CoreWeave’s higher profile and its recent guidance misstep. It’s in the penalty box, while Nebius is the shiny new story. But if Meeks is right about the backlog and execution, that discount represents a major opportunity. The analyst consensus price target is still way up at $131. The question is whether the market’s fear about the “AI bubble” is blinding it to the very real, very contracted business happening right now.
