By Kit Norton

CoreWeave stock continued to fall Thursday after a report Wednesday that Meta Platforms might launch a cloud business to sell excess artificial-intelligence computing power. But Rosenblatt Securities believes the selloff offers a chance to buy CoreWeave on the cheap.

CoreWeave stock dropped 5.5% to $80.97 on Thursday after sinking 14% on Wednesday. The decline on Wednesday wiped out $7.56 billion in market value from the so-called neocloud, which is in the business of selling AI computing power.

The basis for the precipitous stock drop was a report from Bloomberg that Meta hopes to generate revenue from selling excess AI computing power to third parties. Fellow neocloud Nebius also sank on the news. Meta declined to comment to Barron's on the report.

Adding insult to injury, CoreWeave currently counts Meta as a major customer for its AI computing services.

Meanwhile, Japan's SoftBank announced Thursday that it's also entering the cloud business to sell AI computing power. Its announcement says it intends to operate a neocloud business in the U.S., tentatively named SB Neo.

"We're continuing to see incredibly strong demand across a growing and increasingly diverse customer base, including Meta who is a great customer and partner of CoreWeave's," CoreWeave said in a statement to Barron's.

"More investment across the AI ecosystem reinforces what we're seeing every day: a rapidly expanding market, not a zero-sum game," the company added.

Rosenblatt analysts John McPeake and Tanu Chauhan wrote late Wednesday that investor reaction to the report "presents a buying opportunity" for CoreWeave shares.

"Our checks show no change in hyperscale posture toward GPU compute procurement, with GPU shortages the norm right now across the industry," McPeake wrote of the demand for graphics processing units for AI and the strong market for AI computing power.

"We also do not think that Meta has the right to resell any of the capacity that they have leased from CoreWeave through 2032 to third parties," the analysts added.

The firm reiterated its Buy rating on the stock and maintained its $250 price target. That price target represents 209% upside from current trading levels.

CoreWeave stock has gained 13% this year but is down 51% over the past 12 months.

Write to Kit Norton at kit.norton@barrons.com

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