CoreWeave Opens HQ in London, Working on 2 Data Centers

CoreWeave Opens HQ for European countries in London and is currently working on setting up 2 data centers in the UK.

CoreWeave does not remain stationary. Following a substantial funding round that reportedly valued the GPU cloud company at $19 billion, the New Jersey-based startup has established its European headquarters in a London office. 

Also this year, Coreweave will establish two data centers in the United Kingdom as part of a £1 billion ($1.25 billion) investment—its first venture beyond the United States.

Established in 2017, CoreWeave is among several cloud computing companies with an AI focus that have benefited from the recent AI boom, including the generative AI craze sparked by OpenAI’s ChatGPT. CoreWeave allows users to utilize cloud-based AI “compute,” which comprises the necessary infrastructure and resources to execute computational activities like data processing and machine learning model execution. 

Developers constructing AI applications require access to GPUs (graphics processing units), which are typically rented for a specified period of time. These units are difficult to configure and administer and costly to operate. CoreWeave, which provides a variety of Nvidia GPUs to support developers’ diverse use cases, makes this processing capacity scalable and on-demand. 

Several entities have surfaced in this emerging market and are also receiving financial backing. A few months ago, Lambda secured a substantial $320 million in funding. A month ago, French startup FlexAI emerged from covert mode with an additional $30 million, with a specific objective of implementing AI models on various architectures beyond Nvidia. 

CoreWeave is a leading contender in the cloud-based GPU industry. It announced last week that it had nearly trebled its valuation from the $7 billion figure previously reported in December to $1.1 billion in a funding round. The AI gold rush is such that Nvidia’s market capitalization has increased fourfold to over $2 trillion in the past year.

U.K. & AI

It is regarded as one of the leading nations in AI R&D spending, trailing only the United States and China. The capital of the United Kingdom is the location of Google’s DeepMind, and Microsoft recently pledged $3.15 billion to construct its AI infrastructure in the region over the coming years. Jordan Hoffmann, a former scientist at Inflection and DeepMind for the Redmond-based behemoth, leads the consumer AI division, which was recently established in London. 

The competition for AI talent in the United Kingdom will only intensify in the future. A spokesperson for CoreWeave stated that the organization’s new headquarters will be located just off Brick Lane in East London and that it will be seeking to hire approximately thirty individuals for go-to-market, software engineering, support engineering, operations, and finance positions. 

Similar to the broader concept of cloud computing, the establishment of localized “compute” infrastructure ought to provide regional businesses with enhanced application performance and reduced latency. Considering CoreWeave’s intention to establish two data centers in the United Kingdom by the conclusion of this year, it is reasonable to infer that the organization had likely been preparing for these endeavors before the disclosure made today. 

This also signifies that CoreWeave will have 28 data centers operational worldwide by the end of 2024; however, the company declined to disclose the current number of such centers. After 2023, it possessed fourteen, all of which were located within the United States. 

“London is an important AI hub in which we are investing because of the unprecedented demand for AI infrastructure,” Mike Intrator, CEO and co-founder of CoreWeave, said in a statement. “The expansion of our physical presence in the United Kingdom represents a significant turning point in the subsequent stage of CoreWeave’s expansion.”