(Bloomberg) -- CoreWeave, a cloud computing provider that’s among the hottest startups in the artificial intelligence race, is in talks to arrange a sale of existing shares valuing it at $23 billion, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
The Roseland, New Jersey-based company, led by CEO Michael Intrator, is discussing a transaction that would allow existing shareholders such as employees to tender between $400 million and $500 million worth of their holdings, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information. Terms haven’t been finalized and could still change, one of the people said.
The move comes as the company mulls an initial public offering that may come as soon as next year.
A CoreWeave representative declined to comment.
A $23 billion valuation would mark another sharp rise for CoreWeave, a premium to the $19.1 billion valuation it received in May, when it finalized a roughly $1.1 billion preferred equity investment from investors including Coatue Management and Magnetar Capital. The company was valued at $7 billion in an earlier round in December.
In May, the company also secured a new $7.5 billion credit facility from lenders including Magnetar, Blackstone Inc. and Carlyle Group Inc.
CoreWeave, which counts Nvidia Corp. as an investor, was an early adopter of Nvidia’s graphics chips for data centers, getting ahead of a wave of demand for powerful processors to run artificial intelligence applications. It’s building out data centers based on Nvidia’s chips to offer AI-related computing.
CoreWeave’s investors also include the Investment Management Corporation of Ontario, Jane Street and JPMorgan Asset Management, among others.
In March, CoreWeave named Nitin Agrawal, a former Google executive, as chief financial officer. In a statement announcing Agrawal’s appointment, Intrator said CoreWeave was entering a “phase of monumental growth.”
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