CoreWeave and Nebius are both in the same business. They rent out high-performance GPUs to companies training AI models. Same chips. Same racks. Same revenue model. But when it comes to accounting, they live in different worlds.
CoreWeave is sitting on an $80 billion valuation. That number leans heavily on how they treat their hardware. In January 2023, they extended the depreciation timeline for their GPUs from 4 years to 6. That means they spread the cost of each chip over a longer period, which lowers annual expenses and boosts short-term profit. It also makes their balance sheet look cleaner. The twist? NVIDIA, the company that makes those chips, moved to a 1-year product cycle. That means GPUs are aging twice as fast. CoreWeave didn’t adjust.
CoreWeave and the Never-Ending GPU Depreciation — A Masterclass in Accounting Elasticity
CoreWeave and Nebius, two public companies riding the AI infrastructure wave, both operate nearly identical business models: providing high-performance GPUs — such as NVIDIA’s H100 and H200… pic.twitter.com/pmRGsSnuEx
— Kakashii (@kakashiii111) July 6, 2025
Nebius, by contrast, still depreciates the same class of GPUs over 4 years. Their infrastructure lifespan is listed as 3 to 10 years. CoreWeave claims 8 to 12. Same hardware. Different math. Maybe CoreWeave’s servers drink collagen.
Neither company is a hyperscaler. They don’t use the chips internally. They rent them out. And in this market, customers want the newest silicon. The useful window for top-tier GPUs like the H100 and H200 is often just 12 to 24 months. After that, demand drops. So assuming 6 years of economic value looks optimistic.
CoreWeave’s strategy is simple. Stretch the depreciation. Lower the costs. Show higher profit. That helps when you’re trying to justify an $80 billion valuation. Nebius is taking the more conservative route. They reported a negative EBITDA of $95 million in Q1 2025, but they’re targeting $1 billion in annual recurring revenue by year-end. Their growth is real. Their accounting is tighter.
Sources:
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/20250617-nebius-just-posted-700-214640180.html
https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/coreweave-vs-nebius-which-ai-infrastructure-stock-better-buy