DA Davidson upgraded CoreWeave (NASDAQ: CRWV) from Underperform to Neutral and raised its price target to $68.00 from $36.00, after shares rose more than 2% intraday on Monday.
The firm said it continued to believe that equity value in CoreWeave could ultimately be wiped out, as it viewed the enterprise’s value as largely accruing to debt holders. However, DA Davidson identified a potential large-scale capital raise by OpenAI as a short-term catalyst that warranted a rating change.
The analyst said a successful $100 billion OpenAI fundraise, while not guaranteed, could enable OpenAI to meet its 2026 commitments, including those involving CoreWeave. While this would not alter what DA Davidson described as long-term value destruction inherent in CoreWeave’s business model, it could delay near-term pressure on the company.
Conversely, the firm warned that if OpenAI’s fundraising effort fell materially short of the $100 billion target by the end of March, CoreWeave’s equity value could deteriorate rapidly. DA Davidson said it continued to advise investors to avoid the stock over the long term.
The new $68 price target was based on 1x remaining performance obligations, consistent with current market approaches for valuing neocloud companies. While the firm described this methodology as imperfect given return and backlog risks, it said the framework allowed it to justify the higher target under its internal ratings criteria.
