WASHINGTON, March 28, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - US cloud services provider CoreWeave said it priced its initial public offering at $40 per share, allowing it to raise $1.5 billion -- in an announcement a day before it starts trading in New York.

The company, which was founded in 2017, uses artificial intelligence chip giant Nvidia's graphic processing units to power AI workloads for customers.

While its debut marks a major US tech offering, it comes amid a period of stock market volatility.

Response to the IPO could also be seen as a sign of investors' confidence levels in the AI infrastructure sector.

For now, CoreWeave's share price would be notably lower than a planned range of $47 to $55 each.

But at its current level, the company's valuation would be around $19 billion.

The New Jersey-based company has lowered the number of shares it would sell too, from 49 million originally announced to 37.5 million.

US media reports said that Nvidia was eyeing a $250 million order of new shares.

Meanwhile, ChatGPT creator OpenAI had also agreed to buy $350 million in CoreWeave shares, according to an earlier filing.

CoreWeave counts among its customers Microsoft -- from which it derives much of its revenue -- alongside Facebook parent Meta and France-based Mistral.

CoreWeave is more than 80 percent owned by its three founders, including chief executive Michael Intrator, its prospectus indicated.

It posted revenue of $1.9 billion last year, leaping some sevenfold from 2023 on the AI boom, according to the prospectus filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.