- In today’s CEO Daily: Diane Brady talks to CoreWeave CEO Michael Intrator.
- The big story: Markets fall worldwide as tariff “Liberation Day” approaches.
- The markets: It’s grim out there.
- Analyst notes from UBS, Bank of America, EY, and Apollo on tariffs and the economy.
- Plus: All the news and watercooler chat from Fortune.
Good morning. The performance of an IPO can reflect broad market sentiment or narrow investor enthusiasm for the company being listed—or a bit of both. There were a lot of eyes on CoreWeave’s Nasdaq debut on Friday, which closed flat at its scaled-back IPO price of $40 a share. Some saw the underwhelming performance of the Nvidia-backed AI cloud-computing provider as a bad sign for tech IPOs and AI, while others, including my colleague Jeremy Kahn, believe the reaction to CoreWeave reflects the challenges of being CoreWeave.
I spoke with CoreWeave CEO Michael Intrator on Friday about the New Jersey-based company’s much-scrutinized debut. He said they had scaled back the price and size of the stock offer because of “broader market headwinds,” describing the IPO as “a means to an end” for the company to grow.
“It puts us on the path towards what we need to accomplish as a business,” he said. “A little bigger, a little smaller, a little higher, a little lower. That’s not going to matter. What’s going to matter is: how do we execute on our business?”
That is a topic of much debate. Being a public company could drive down the cost of accessing debt markets, but CoreWeave’s capital-intensive model and existing debt burden unnerves some investors. The company has borrowed $8 billion to build out data centers that run graphics processing units (GPUs) provided by Nvidia. Servicing that debt is likely to cost at least $1 billion this year, which puts the $1.5 billion it raised through Friday’s IPO in perspective.
CoreWeave also relies heavily on one customer—Microsoft, which accounted for 62% of its revenue last year. Besides that, the company is betting heavily on a class of Nvidia chips that could be disrupted by newer models. And then there’s the question of whether we’re in a data center bubble, which Intrator dismisses.
“There’s a divergence between what the capital markets and what the media is thinking, and what I am feeling down in the trenches. What I am feeling is relentless demand,” he says. “I know what my clients want. I know the type of infrastructure they need. I know the type of scale that they’re requesting, and I build for them. Over time, I will be able to generate enormous value for my investors. I don’t really care where it is today or tomorrow or the day after.”
You can read my full interview with Intrator here.
More news below.
Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at diane.brady@fortune.com
Top news
Markets tumble as tariff “Liberation Day” approaches. Markets in Asia, particularly U.S. allies, plunged on Monday. Taiwan’s Taiex index was down 4.2%, the worst performer among major Asia-Pacific market indices. Close behind was Japan’s Nikkei 225, which fell 4.1%. South Korea’s KOSPI dropped 3.0%, and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 closed the day 1.7% lower. European indexes were down across the board in early trading.
US futures contracts for the S&P 500 were down nearly 1% in premarket trading after the index itself fell 2% on Friday. The S&P is down 5.1% YTD.
Trump wants more aggression on tariffs. President Donald Trump has been pushing his staff to be more aggressive about the administration’s upcoming tariff policy announcement on April 2. One option is imposing levies on the 15% of countries that the administration believes are America’s worst trading partners.
But it’s not clear what the plan is. President Trump said “all countries” would be affected. But the White House is still working on what the tariff levels will be for each country.
Want some more? Trump says he is serious about seeking a third term in office — something that has been illegal since the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution banned it in 1951.
Trump is angry at Putin. In a rare display of impatience with the Russian president, Trump said he was "very angry, pissed off" with Putin over his footdragging in peace talks for Ukraine.
China’s AI edge. Many CEOs ignored China’s burgeoning AI industry until the arrival of DeepSeek, an AI model that could compete with OpenAI at a much cheaper operating cost. The country’s massive manufacturing base and pool of talent, along with other factors, is making China a key competitive player in the AI space.
How Joann Fabrics fell. Last month, Joann Fabrics announced that it would be closing all of its stores in the U.S. Fortune investigates how the retailer lost 99% of its value between 2021 and 2024 and filed for bankruptcy twice in less than a year.
From the analysts
- UBS on the Nixon experience: “In 1971, US President Nixon imposed a trade tax on imports into the US, and froze US wages and prices. This was not a success. Faced with rising costs and no ability to adjust pricing, businesses stopped supplying goods. Controls collapsed, and inflation soared. Overnight media reports suggest US President Trump has told US auto companies not to raise prices in the wake of aggressive taxes on imported autos and parts,” per Paul Donovan.
- Bank of America on auto tariffs: “Much of the 16mn units sold in the U.S. are imported (c. 45%-50% of light vehicle sales). The BofA Global Research auto equity team sees the potential for a 2mn-3mn hit to U.S.,” per Stephanie Vincent et al.
- Apollo on tariffs and the economy: “The bottom line is that the incoming data remains solid, but the soft data is deteriorating. With tariffs not going away, the observed weakness in the soft data should be expected to spill over to weakness in the hard data over the coming months,” per Torsten Sløk.
- EY on consumer sentiment: “The latest consumer health check revealed consumers are increasingly apprehensive about spending amid sticky inflation trends and pre-emptive inflation anxiety (PIA) from tariffs, flagging consumer sentiment, and rising job insecurity,” per Lydia Boussour.
Around the watercooler
Companies are slashing their earnings forecasts as consumer confidence about the future reaches 12-year low by Stuart Dyos
The world is asking what an American promise is worth now. The answer could determine the dollar’s future by Jason Ma
The winner from auto tariffs is ‘no one’ as ‘pure chaos’ will reign over the industry, analysts say by Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez
Jury rules startup founder Charlie Javice guilty of defrauding JPMorgan Chase by Luisa Beltran
Airbnb cofounder Joe Gebbia says DOGE is pushing to create an ‘Apple Store–like experience’ in government by Irina Ivanova